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.


"So this is what it feels like to have this kind of power, I can now see why it is so hard to stay in control," Sypher said, staring into Rai's eyes. "This power should be feared by the individual's opponent, and by the user. Well since this isn't my natural element. I do not have to worry about getting corrupted. Now then let me thank you for your gift," Sypher said, opening his mouth and releasing a beam of light purple convexity as large as Rai's previous one.

"I need to match it, or else I'll end up just like him," he said, as he began preparing the attack. But the two of us are surely equal again. If we are then there will be another rebound with the power of possibly killing several of the audience members.

Rai opened up his maw, creating a large black hole. Sypher's convexity attack collided with the black hole, but was not able to pierce it. Rai then created another black hole, which was several yards away from the first one, which pointed up towards the sky. Sypher's convexity beam exited the second black portal, as it flew off towards the sky. The purple beam of energy subsided as soon as Sypher had taken notice of Rai's technique. He growled angrily at how Rai had chosen to deal with his attack.

"Why did you have to use your shadow element to deal with my attack," Sypher said, letting out a growl. "We both know it would have been more exiting dealing with another rebound. It would have probably killed some of these low lives."

"That…is exactly why…I chose to redirect the attack," He said, panting from exhaustion from the large attack.

"It sickens me how you have begun to care for these creatures. They ostracized and hated you, and they will continue to do so. You might change for them, but they will not change for you," Sypher said, looking down at Rai with pity.

Why do I care about them? Rai thought, as he began questioning his actions.

"It is said that the power of convexity can allow one to use moves that would take years for them to master. I want to test this theory out," Sypher said.

Water flew up into the air, and took the shape of a ring. The ring of water was currently suspended in the air around Sypher. The ring of water began spinning around him at blinding speed. Sypher smiled, upon seeing how nervous Rai was. Sypher suddenly snapped his wings wide open, sending the water ring flying off in a three hundred and sixty degree manner at blinding speeds. Rai barely avoided the attack as he ducked under the attack. The intense pressure from the water ring cut cleanly through the entire base of the stadium. Rai stood back up on his four paws. He was surprised that Sypher had used that attack.

"Where did his water ring go?" Cynder questioned, as she looked at Spyro.

"It just cut through the whole arena's base, but I could only make out frames of its travel. It was going too fast for even my eyes," Spyro replied. Still it looks like the attack was a success. He is right about convexity granting access to attacks that would take years to master, but there is a very fatal drawback to it. Rai's currently feeling the drawback of using that advanced shadow element technique. I can still see that he is seriously exhausted.

Sypher smiled sinisterly at Rai, as he began processing his next move. He began wondering how the dragon was able to cut through the entire stadium cleanly. Especially since Sypher's last attack had only resulted in a large gash on Rai's front body.

"It worked," Sypher said, panting from exhaustion. "Before, I could never get the water pressure to that level. Now that I can make the pressure reach water jet level, I can cut through anything. Now let us see how you handle a vertical water jet ring."

Sypher flew up into the air, and quickly formed a jet pressured rotating ring of water. Rai sent another convexity beam towards Sypher, hoping that he could stop his attack. As the beam of energy reached its target, the highly pressurized ring cut the beam in half. The beam parted into two, and as a result it missed Sypher. Rai quickly stopped his attack to attempt something else, but as soon as he did, Sypher released his attack. Once again the ring flew off in three hundred and sixty degrees range. As the vertical ring approached him at blinding speeds time stopped for Rai. He knew that if he jumped out of the way the ring would end up killing the dragons in the crowd behind him. There was nothing he could do for the dragons on the other side of the stadium, which were facing the other side of the water ring.

Rai was having an inner fight with himself on whether he should save the crowd or not. Sypher's words from earlier about caring about them echoed through his mind. There was truth to what Sypher had said, but if he wants them to accept him then he should be the one to take the first step, right? He thought about how Cynder had endured all of their hate, and from what he saw she was still enduring it. She had managed to shift some of their opinions, but some still saw her as an evil dragoness. Since she endured the hate, because she did not want to lash out at them and prove them right. Rai always knew that Cynder was strong…but he knew that he was not Cynder. Her true personality differed from the one she had while under Malefor's control. His personality was the exact same. As the water ring approached him, Rai sidestepped it.

Why should I save the lives of pathetic creatures that would much rather see me killed then living with them? Why should I care what any of them think of me? I don't care if they hate me, as long as the ones important to me still care about me. Those dragons behind me mean nothing to me. Rai thought.

Luckily for the dragons in the crowd, the Guardians had been preparing a large wall made out of their combined elements at both ends of the aqua had been working on it the moment that Sypher had shaped the vertical aqua ring. Now the two walls would be tested. Meanwhile Terrador punched his four paws into the stone field. The water ring easily cut through both elemental walls. The water ring then flew out of the stadium, and into the distance where it eventually evaporated. Rai looked behind him to see how many creatures Sypher had killed, but was surprised to see that the crowd section had a large gap within it. The other side of the stadium had a large gap in the crowd section as well. Rai looked over towards Terrador, who exhaustingly removing his claws from the stone floor. Terrador had separated the crowd section so that Sypher's water ring would fly through the large gap, avoiding any of the audience members. The remaining dragons landed next to Terrador.

"Nice job," Cyril said, praising Terrador's efforts. "We should disqualify Sypher; he was clearly attempting to kill some of the audience members."

"No!" Terrador yelled out in disapproval. "We let them continue their fight with any luck they will end up killing each other."

The Guardians nodded, and helped Terrador fly back up into the air.

"It appears that what I have been saying is slowly beginning to sink in," Sypher said, smiling from Rai's last action.

"Well you spoke the truth," Rai said, dusting off his wings.

"Unlike you, I do not…lie," Sypher said, as he rubbed his paw against his snout. He looked at his paw, and saw that blood was running out of it. He rubbed the blood across his snout, as he ignored the throbbing pain coming from his head. Is this what I get for using the power of convexity to use moves that I should not have access to yet?

"The last time we fought it was all about survival, but we have both changed tremendously since then. Back then all you wanted was for someone to kill you in the fights that Malefor forced his captives in. They told you that you were trash and useless, but you are not. I know that you no longer think the same way, because when I look into your eyes, I do not see the same empty abyss that was once there," Rai said, trying desperately to get through Sypher.

"You also changed. While I was looking for somebody to kill me, you were looking for someone to kill. It did not matter who it was, as long as you got to vent out your frustrations over not being able to save Cynder. You were always there for her, but she never acknowledged you. After our first fight, when I realized that both of us had survived our encounter with each other, I asked you a question. Do you remember it?" Sypher asked, glaring at Rai.

"Do you feel as worthless as I do?" Rai replied.

"We both felt the same way. After that we lasted in the same captive area for a few years, before we were eventually separated. During those years, I began considering you as…as a…as something that you never considered me to be for you. We both filled the void of loneliness that was in our hearts for each other. It is nice to see that what I thought we had was all a lie," Sypher said, running his claws along the water that was around him.

"No…you are," Rai said, as he was at a loss for words. He meant a whole lot to me as well. If anything he might have been my first true…No! If anything he was something greater than that. He was and still is my…my…why can't I say it?

"I am right," Sypher said, appearing in front of Rai while he had been preoccupied.

Sypher punched Rai under his chin with a punch that had a stream of water flowing behind it. The stream of high pressured water carried, Rai high into the air before it dispersed. Rai was left spinning wildly in the air, as Sypher flew up towards him. The light blue dragon began using the moisture in the air to coat himself in water. Sypher was now travelling in a stream of water that was approaching Rai at great speeds. The stream of water that Sypher was flowing with collided with Rai. Sypher removed himself from the stream of water as it carried the dragon down towards the field. Rai forcefully removed himself from the stream of water that was pushing him down. He began flapping his wings as he flew in place, and looked up towards Sypher. He noticed that the dragon was up to something. Sypher opened up his wings to their full length as he took a deep breath.

"Cataclysm," He said, slamming his fists down through the air.

A shockwave travelled downward, turning all of the moisture in its way into water. Rai watched in horror as the large volume of water began falling down towards him. The volume of water was about one third the size of the fighting field, and one third the height of the large arena. Rai moved his paws around his maw, as he blew air into them. The large pressurized volume of water was quickly descending upon Rai. The dragon looked up, and saw that it had now entered the arena. He clasped his paws, and then he forcefully slid his right paw forward. The fast motion sent a large screeching slash of wind towards the large volume of water. The wind slash collided against the large volume of water. The slash had enough power behind it to halt the water's descent. The large volume of water began bending around the air slash, as Rai's attack attempted to cut straight through it.

"No amount of wind can cut through this much volume of water," Sypher said, as he pushed his paws through the air.

The wind slash disappeared in the mass of water. Rai's wind was not able to cut Sypher's attack. Without anything to stop it, the attack fell upon Rai. The grey scaled dragon was engulfed by the attack as it reached the ground. Upon crashing against the ground large waves were sent along the field. As the waves reached the edge of the field they collided against the barrier walls. The waves easily destroyed portions of the barrier walls. The crowd looked on as the chaotic volume of water slowly turned into a calm body of water. It then appeared to them as if the water was being drained. The water that had engulfed the field was in fact decreasing in mass. As the water slowly began to disappear a large and deep crack, which stretched from one end of the field to the other, appeared in its place.

Sypher was slowly flying down towards the large crack, but just as he was nearing it a lightning bolt from the dark black clouds that had been accumulating struck the young dragon. A steady stream of lightning flew into the dragon's body as the lightning held his body in place while in the air. As the last few volts flew through Sypher's body, the lightning ended its connection with him. Sypher was sent shooting down into the crack, thanks to the lightning bolt. As Sypher disappeared into the vast split of earth it began to rain around the area that the arena was located in. The thunderstorm that had been brewing above had finally started. The crowd remained silent as they waited for one of the fighters to fly out of the deep slash in the ground. The Guardians also waited, as they flew over the crack in hopes of seeing one of them.

It took a while, but the crowd saw a single paw make its way out of the dark hole. They then saw another paw on the opposite end of the crack. Both dragons were dragging themselves out of the deep slash in the ground. As Rai and Sypher made it back onto the surface they turned to look at each other, and then continued walking away from the crack. The crowd noticed that Rai was dragging his wings along the ground. The dragon winced with each step he took, as he dragged his mangled-up broken wings alongside him. They looked over towards Sypher, and saw that the dragon was dragging his right hind leg, tail, and right wing along the ground. Sypher sighed in annoyance, as he dragged his paralyzed limbs. The physical traits of convexity had disappeared from both dragons. The two stopped, and then turned around to face each other once again.

Rai began covering his body in lightning, letting it travel through him wildly. He looked over towards Sypher, who was coating himself in his respective element. The two dragons just glared at each other, waiting patiently for the other to move first. The falling rain soaked there scales as the sound of thunder echoed in the background. The two dragons suddenly disappeared from place, causing confusion among the crowd. The crowd then began spotting a bright blue light accompanied by rain distortion in random locations of the arena. The crowd then began hearing loud booming noises resonating from around the field. Currently Rai and Sypher were moving too fast for the audience to keep up. Rai was using his lightning element to reach speeds equal to sound. Sypher was using the countless raindrops to teleport across the field in order to match Rai's speed. The two were clashing fists across the entire field as they moved rapidly around it.

"We…we can't compete with that," Seth said, as he watched, and felt the blows that came from the field.

"Blaze was not able to push Rai to this level, but Sypher has. Both of them have pushed each other to their limits. Now do you see why I warned you against fighting Rai?" Spyro said, turning towards Seth. "The two of them are the strongest competitors here. All of you can feel it, right? Not a single one of us, which belong in the same age group as them, can currently beat them. Even I would not have been able to compete with them at that level."

"Then it is a good thing that they are fighting so furiously against each other. The only problem is that eventually one of them will have to be dealt with in the next round," Seth said.

A massive shockwave was felt around that shook the entire arena. The crowd looked down at the field, and saw that both dragons were standing at far opposite ends of the field. Both dragons were panting heavily from exhaustion.

"I…I wish…that…it did not have to be like this," Sypher said, as he tried to regain some energy. "But you forced me to do this."

"I did not force you to do anything, but I will show you what happens when you threaten the ones that I care about," Rai said, raising his left arm into the air. "I will say this about our relationship Sypher. You probably saved me from becoming something much worse than what I currently am. For that I thank you, but now it is time that I eradicate you."

Sypher frowned at Rai's words. "Yea, perhaps it is time that we put an end to all of this," He said, lifting up both his arms.

The mass amount of lightning, which was surging within the dark grey clouds up above them, was beginning to converge at a single point. At the same time every single rain drop was stopping in mid-air, and flying off towards Sypher. The storm released one individual lightning bolt towards the field. The lightning was flying wildly towards Rai. Just as the lightning bolt was about to hit him, Rai caught it with his left paw. At this point the storm began feeding Rai all of its lightning. Rai grunted as the vast amount of lightning surrounded his left arm. It took a while, but eventually he had collected all of the storms lightning energy in his left arm. He then began merging all of his remaining elemental energy with it.

As Rai was concentrating on controlling the large quantity of lightning around his arm, the bright sun began gracing his face. This caught Rai by surprise, which caused him to quickly look above him. The dark clouds had turned into water, and were now slowly making their way over towards Sypher. Rai looked over at the dragon, and saw that he had a colossal amount of water besides him. The water was several yards up in the air, and several yards wide. He then saw Sypher mix in a bit of his own blood into the object. The blood began shaping the blank volume of water into something devious. Rai began concentrating on the wild lightning around his arm. The grey scaled dragon finally felt that he was able to control it. He looked back over towards Sypher's attack, and saw that it had finished morphing.

Standing in front of Rai was a water creature that towered above the arena. The water creature had the body of a snake, a ring of water spikes protruding from its entire body, several large sharp tipped tentacles extending from the base of its body, five sharp dorsal finds extending from behind its neck to the center of its back, and three horns coming out of the front of his forehead. The horns were shaped in such a way that they gave the appearance of a crown. It looked down at Rai with evil bright eyes, as Sypher stood down below the field at the base of its tail. The dark blue figure let out a roar that shook the entire area. The roar also created several large cracks around the arena.

"We must help the Guardians protect the crowd," Ignitus said, to his fellow leaders as he stood up. "Even they will not be able to keep everyone safe from that thing."

"This is my strongest attack, Rai," Sypher said, giving him an ominous smile. "Will you challenge it with your strongest attack?"

"Yes, because anything less would be disrespectful towards you," Rai said, aiming his lightning arm at Sypher. "Lightning Gryphon takes a considerable amount of my own lightning element energy to create. Fallen Lightning, which is the attack that I used to beat Malefor, is created when I manipulate natural lightning from a storm. But this, my strongest attack, uses both natural lightning and my own elemental lightning."

"I use this attack against you, because our entire relationship was a lie. You promised me that I would never have to face that terrible loneliness ever again. I just wanted to find happiness in this depressing world," Sypher said, with watery eyes. "Now face obliteration, Water Element: Leviathan!"

"I'm sorry, Sypher," Rai said, as the massive creature moved towards him. "I…I think I might have chosen the wrong side, I just don't know? If I die then…at least for a while I did not feel so alone in this cold world, Lightning Element: Quetzalcoatl!"

Rai released a vast amount of light blue lightning that shaped itself into a large figure equal in size to Sypher's. The figure had a snake like body made entirely out of lightning. The bottom half of the figure's body was covered in scales while its top half was covered in ruffled feathers. It had angel like wings, which had a wingspan of the entire length of the arena. It had several spikes, made out of lightning bolts, protruding from the top of his head all the way to the base of its tail. The last detail on the lightning created creature was a set of three lightning horns protruding from its forehead that went upward. Its horns also gave the appearance that it was wearing a crown. The large lightning figure instantly caught up with the water creature, it had the ability to travel at the speed of lightning, and clashed against its opposing enemy.

The figures pushed against each other, as they tried overpowering the other. Both element created creatures bit each other's neck in an attempt to weaken its enemy. Instead of weakening each other their contact was having another effect. They were transferring each other's respective element into the body of the other. The two attacks were slowly fusing with each other, as the elements that they were made up of began mixing with each other. The mixture of the two creatures was quickly becoming unstable as both of them began pulsating at an irregular manner. What had happened once before in the fight was currently happening once again. The two figures swirled around in a giant mass, until they let out a large blast originating from the base of their connection.

Was it a mistake to fight against you? Why are we even fighting against each other? I should have just quit. It did not have to end up like this. You…you saved me when I was at my lowest. I…I should be able to do the same for you. Are they really worth losing you? Rai thought, as he witnessed the birth of the large blast.

I…don't want to lose you. I know that what I am doing is selfish, but I know that they are wrong for you. Spyro is the only one that, in my opinion, cares about you. No matter how bad you get, he will never abandon you. I am doing this to protect you from getting hurt again. Perhaps I went about this the wrong way, but I don't have much experience in being cared about or caring about someone else. Killing you will save you, and if you kill me. Well at least you will put an end to this worthless dragon. Sypher said, as he looked upon the explosion. Till the very end, I was alone.

All of this happened in less than half a second, and the only part that every dragon saw was the start of the blast. Rai and Sypher no longer had the energy to create another elemental attack, and their wings were currently unusable. They let the blast of their combined attack, created from the rebound, envelope them. The light blue blast quickly continued on past them. It covered the entire arena, and the large number of creatures that were a part of the audience. The blast continued on past the stadium for several more seconds, as its height had reached a distance equal to that of a large skyscraper. Amongst all the chaos only one dragon had managed to escape the radius of the blast. He was currently watching the explosion expand from a safe distance in the sky.

"Now I can see why the Judges are so interested in these dragons," the light grey-blue dragon said, while flapping his wings. "It looks like the blast from their combined power can wipe out a large section of a major dragon city. This means that both of their last attacks are able to do considerable damage to a city. It is unfortunate that this location is so far away from Warfang. Still it looks like the blast is dying down. It also appears as if it would not have been able to destroy a city."

As the blast began fading away the aftermath of its destruction became visible. The blast had destroyed everything that it had enveloped. The once glorious arena had now been reduced to several layers of ruble. The majority of the crowd had been buried by the ruble. The Guardians and dragon leaders had done their best to protect them, but even they had no idea how destructive the attacks from the two young dragons would be. Currently the Guardians and dragon leaders were helping the injured out of the rubble. They had been able to protect those in their immediate area, but they could not get to all of them.

"Is everyone alright?" Spyro asked, as he began removing the rubble around him with his earth element.

"For the most part," Cynder said, standing back up.

"If Brox, Spyro, and I hadn't created that multiple layered earth dome around us the blast could have seriously injured one of us," Greg said, helping Alyssa up.

"It wasn't just the three of you, though," Blaze said, feeling the small amount of sand at his paws.

"Just returning the favor since you guys decided to protect us as well," Gen said, looking over towards them.

"That's unreal," Lux said, pointing in front of the dragons.

Everyone turned towards the open field that had large rubble scattered all around it. What they saw in front of them astonished some and frightened the rest. Rai and Sypher still stood in the center of the field. The two dragons were both drenched in water, and they both had a large current of lightning travelling through their bodies. Both dragons had several broken ribs, and internal injuries. Their scales had been burned horribly by the lightning that had travelled its way through their bodies. The life in both dragons' eyes was slowly diminishing. Sypher opened his maw, as his eyes began to get watery.

"Please," he said in a hushed tone. "Do not let me die alone." Sypher felt his body weakening as he slowly gave in to the countless injuries that he had suffered. He raised his arm towards Rai, reaching out to him.

Rai gave the dragon a sorrowful look as he opened his maw, "The two of us…you just didn't…you are my…I realized it too late…now I have to live…I don't deserve…I'm so sorry!" The dragon was having a difficult time expressing his feelings.

Rai also raised his arm towards Sypher. That last bit of motion for both dragons caused their bodies to fail. Both dragons fell to the ground, creating a large thud noise as they hit the destroyed ground beneath them. A small gust of wind flew between both of them, as they remained motionless on the ground. While most of the dragons had been focused on helping those trapped beneath the rubble, Ignitus had seen what had just transpired. He flew over towards both dragons, and examined their bodies.

"The two of you have been through so much," he said, looking down at them, and then back at the countless dragons around the rubble. "For now we must help the wounded, and those trapped under the rubble. We will commence the final round of the tournament once everyone has been rescued. As for this fight, as you can see both dragons can no longer continue. This fight is a draw, but even if one of them had won. They would have been disqualified for injuring, and killing some of the members in the crowd."

The battle had ended just the same as how their previous fight had ended. Perhaps both dragons knew from the very start that it would end like this. Both had been a victim of their own hatred for the world that they so desperately wanted to be a part of. The light blue dragon, that had let jealousy and hatred consume him, had ended up losing what he wanted most in life. The now light grey dragon, that distanced himself from those that cared about him, had realized too late that he had already gotten what he wanted in life. Now both of them were currently fighting against death.