Immediately, Apata leapt at Cynder, swinging her large clubbed tail around to smash Cynder in the face. Cynder only just managed to duck out of the way from the club, before leaping backwards as Apata made another wide sweep with her club, aiming at her ankles this time. Apata then spread her wings wide, lifting herself into the air, staring down at Cynder. Cynder recomposed herself and dived into her shadow as Apata shot an earth missile at her. Feeling the heat of the battle, she began to feel adrenaline pump through her blood, muscles pumped and ready to fight. She ran around the ring, keeping watch on Apata through the shadows as the flying earth dragoness looked around frantically, trying to track her down. Then, Cynder flew out of her shadow from behind Apata, knocking her out of the air and tackling her.
The two dragonesses fell to the ground in a ball of limbs and scales. Cynder only just managed to move away from Apata's gnashing jaws as they tried to find something to bite down on. Feeling flustered and wanting to get away, Cynder fought her right forepaw free of Apata's claws, which were drawing small beads of blood, and flashed it upwards. Apata growled in pain as she threw Cynder off her, staggering to her paws in pain. Cynder gasped when she saw that she had left a long, bleeding gash that started half-way down Apata's neck, and ran all the way up to her left jawline. Apata shook her head vigorously, recomposing herself quickly, as she then shot four earth missiles at Cynder in rapid succession. The first hit Cynder in the chest, knocking her backwards as it shattered on impact. The second hit Cynder in the same spot, shattering again, but the added force knocking her to the ground. The last two soured over her head. Cynder saw Apata running towards her, and she hid in her shadow once again, running behind Apata, before leaping out of her shadow and blasting a huge gale of wind at Apata. The wind blast hit Apata in the back of the head, sending her neck shooting forwards from the force of it, before sending her tumbling forward onto her back. Apata scrambled to her paws and bared her teeth threateningly at Cynder, before taking to the air. Apata flew high and dropped when she was above Cynder, curling into a ball as she covered herself with hard rock. With a loud crash, she landed on top of Cynder, who groaned in pain as her left wing was dislocated from the weight of Apata and the heavy earth shield around her.
For a moment, everyone thought Apata had won, with Cynder being downed for a few seconds underneath Apata, but Apata felt Cynder shifting underneath her, and she toppled over as Cynder suddenly threw the earth dragoness violently off her. Cynder created a mini tornado and shot it at Apata, picking the earth dragoness up in the air and sending her spinning out of control. Cynder leapt at Apata, grabbing onto her as she was also pulled into the tornado. They fought savagely inside the gust of spinning air, attempting to bite and claw each other. Apata eventually managed to clamp her jaws onto Cynder's right shoulder, and Cynder winced as Apata drew blood. With a shock, she realised that Apata was pulling on her shoulder. The earth dragoness was trying to disable her right foreleg by taking off as much flesh as possible. Cynder scowled and brought her left claw down Apata's chest, leaving a gaping cut in Apata's flesh that bled profusely. Apata released Cynder's shoulder as she opened her jaws in a cry of pain. Cynder then threw her head forward, biting down on Apata's neck, tasting thick, metallic blood.
But Apata refused to be bested. She thrashed about furiously, lashing out with her forepaws as she grabbed a hold of Cynder's neck, pushing forwards with all her might. Cynder groaned and threw her head sideways, throwing Apata away and out of the massive tornado that she had summoned earlier. Cynder allowed the tornado to dissipate as she leapt out of the swirling wind and lunged at Apata. The earth dragoness quickly dodged as she reared and shot another earth missile at Cynder. This one didn't shatter as it dug itself into Cynder's right flank. Cynder fell to the ground, crying out in pain. Before she knew it, Apata was bringing her club down to place it against her neck (as earth dragons didn't have tailblades, but their clubs could very well snap a dragon's neck due to the hardness of it and the force an earth dragon could bring it down with), but Cynder wouldn't let Apata win. She raised her head and bit down hard on Apata's tail, before jerking her head sideways and throwing Apata off balance. Apata fell to the ground, and Cynder quickly put both her forepaws on her flanks to keep her on the ground, and placed her tailblade against her neck. They stayed like that for a few seconds before the win was given to Cynder.
Cynder removed her tailblade from Apata's neck and helped the earth dragoness to her paws. "Great job, Cynder." Apata panted. "I may have underestimated you."
"Well, I guess I have Malefor to thank for my power…" Cynder deadpanned.
"Yeah. You know, I never saw you as the Terror of the Skies. I heard about the name mentioned, but I never saw you." Apata said.
"Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to." Cynder replied darkly.
"Great job, you two. Go and grab some gems. Apata can rest now. Cynder will prepare herself for her next battle with Blitz." Logron said. "If you think you need some rest, Cynder, we'll give you a few minutes off before you return to the ring."
"I should be good." Cynder replied, walking over to the gem storage chest and taking out some red healing gems. "If I need a rest, I'll probably do it after the third or fourth match."
"Alright, we'll keep going then. Blitz, enter the ring. Get ready." Logron ordered, and the thin lightning dragon followed his orders, entering the ring, which still had a few blood splatters left over from Cynder and Apata's match.
After a while, Cynder re-entered the ring, most of her wounds completely gone, except the bite wound in her shoulder, which was nothing but a scar. Cynder took her spot across from Blitz and studied him. He was thinner than most of the dragons here, but she guessed he had a secret weapon that he was able to use to his advantage, but she wasn't too sure what it would be.
"Three… two… one… FIGHT!" Logron called, and the battle was on.
Cynder tried to make the first move, but Blitz was too fast. Way too fast. He ran at her with astonishing speed, jumping high into the air and taking to the sky. He raked his claws across the top of Cynder's head, causing blood to spill down her neck and onto her muzzle. Some went in her eyes, and she blinked furiously. Some went into her mouth, and she gagged before spitting the blood out of her maw. She turned around to try and follow Blitz, before feeling pain explode in her rear left leg. Blitz landed and ran back into his spot in front of her.
It wasn't long before Cynder realised that the secret weapon that Blitz had was speed. He may not be strong, but he was fast. Cynder tried to leap at him, but he sidestepped out of the way before she could get anywhere close to touching him. Cynder tried again, but he leapt out of the way. For a while, Cynder was trying without success to try and at least get one hit, but Blitz kept dodging her attacks. It looked as if they were doing some awkward, uncoordinated dance for a while. And then Blitz decided to attack. He leapt at Cynder, knocking her over as he put matching claw marks down either side of her face, before leaping away again. But this time, Cynder was prepared for the attack. She caught a leg in her jaws as he leapt away from her, and he fell to the ground with a crash, groaning in pain. Cynder stood to her paws and stalked towards Blitz, dropping his leg.
But that was a mistake. He was away in an instant. Cynder groaned in annoyance as Blitz scrambled to his paws and ran away from her, before leaping into the air, taking flight. Cynder looked up at Blitz, but her head was jolted downwards as a lightning bolt hit her square in the face. The electricity hit the blood that poured onto her face, and it stung profusely, causing Cynder to let out a pained shout. She recomposed herself, shaking her head vigorously, sending blood spraying everywhere as she did so. Cynder let out a yelp as she looked up again and saw Blitz diving towards her, and she dived into her shadow and ran off to a safe spot, before leaping out into the open again.
Cynder breathed another gale of wind at Blitz, who was now standing on the ground, but he dived out of the way, beginning to run around the ring to get to her. Cynder ran around the ring in the same direction, trying to stop Blitz from catching her, but he was faster, and gaining on her. Cynder then decided to stop moving, and released another gale of wind, but aimed in front of Blitz this time. By the time the forceful beam of wind had reached the distance Cynder had wanted it to, Blitz had skidded straight into it, trying to slow down but unable to stop in time. He was thrown into the air, in which Cynder saw her chance.
With a shout, Cynder leapt into the air towards Blitz, and grabbed hold of him, throwing him forcefully to the ground. She landed on top of him and placed her tailblade against Blitz's neck, but Blitz hadn't given up. He thrashed wildly under Cynder, throwing her off his body. He tried to attack her with another lightning bolt, but Cynder breathed black fire at him first, and he fell to the ground, his left side burned pretty badly. She advanced on him, and placed her tailblade against his neck, and, once again, Cynder was given the victory.
Again, the dark purple dragoness removed her tailblade from Blitz's neck, but before she could help him up, the nimble lightning dragon was already on his paws, although quite shaken from her black fire. "You did good, Cynder." Blitz said. "I wasn't expecting you to counterattack my speed so quickly."
"Yeah, well I have a quick mind." Cynder replied. "But you did catch me off guard, though. I'll congratulate you on that."
Blitz went to the red gem storage chest to heal up, but Cynder stayed in the ring. "You're not going to heal yourself?" Logron asked.
"No. It's only really the wound on my head and on my rear left leg. My leg injury isn't too bad, and while my head wound is a bit worse, I should still do fine with it." Cynder replied, shrugging.
"You sure?" Logron said.
"I'm sure. I don't want to waste red gems. I never have wanted to. I only use them when I need to, and Apata had done a good job on my shoulder, which is why I decided to heal up. But it's nothing too bad from the match just gone." Cynder insisted.
"Well, if that's the case, Vetar's up." Logron said. "Enter the ring, Vetar."
Cynder watched as the older fire dragon stepped into the ring, his expression stern and determined. Cynder would be lying if she said she wasn't unsettled by the strong, unwavering gaze in Vetar's eyes. But she couldn't blame him. He was possibly in his hundreds, and had probably been serving since his twenties or thirties like most of the dragons here, meaning that he had probably seen many battles in his life. Some of them possibly against her.
"Round three, Cynder." Vetar grumbled.
Cynder's heart rose in her chest as her assumption was proved correct. She closed her eyes and took deep breaths as her mind began to whirl out of control. What happened in the fight? Did I do anything to him? Cynder thought, her mind taking control of everything. He's got a lot of scars. Were some of them wounds I had caused? I suddenly don't want to do this. Why do I have to fight against him if I've probably already caused him world of hell? Why…?
"…one… FIGHT!" Logron's sudden countdown pierced through her thoughts, catching her off guard.
Instantly, Cynder was notified of a burning sensation in her body. She let out a pained shout as she opened her eyes and saw nothing but fire and smoke. Vetar definitely wasn't holding back, and Cynder knew she needed to fight back, or she would lose, and she really didn't want to lose now. But Vetar's words kept coming to Cynder's mind, and she also didn't want to win. No. I have to win. she thought. I'm doing this so I can help Warfang out for the greater good in the War of True Darkness. I must do this.
Cynder growled as she turned her head forward, staring into the fire as she combatted the bright orange inferno with her black fire attack. The two raging infernos fought for a while until Vetar pushed more power behind his attack with a loud, determined roar, causing his attack to surge through Cynder's attack. A large explosion shook the ground as Cynder was knocked off her paws, sending her sprawling on the ground. The smoke cleared, and before Cynder knew it, Vetar was on top of her, raising his tailblade to end the match as quickly as he could. Cynder scowled and blew a gust of wind at Vetar's face, throwing him off balance as he stepped off her, allowing Cynder to escape from under the experienced fire dragon. She scrambled to her paws and leapt at the fire dragon, but Vetar countered quickly, rearing on his hind legs and putting his forepaws out to stop Cynder. He grasped Cynder's head in his forepaws, before slamming her head against the ground. Cynder rose with a black eye and more blood streaming down her face as her head wound from the previous battle opened more. She swung her tailblade around to strike him across the foreleg, but Vetar counterattacked with his own tailblade. For a while, Cynder and Vetar were having a swordfight with their tailblades before Vetar wrapped his tail around hers and yanked her tail forward, bringing Cynder's whole body with it. Immediately, Vetar swiped his claws across Cynder's cheek, and lunged for her throat, jaws open.
Cynder was prepared for the throat attack, however. She retreated into her shadows, running forward slightly before bursting out of the ground from underneath Vetar, digging her horns into Vetar's belly as he was sent flying into the air. She readjusted herself, grabbing her opponent as she then threw Vetar to the ground. She raised her tailblade to finish the job, but Vetar quickly scrambled to his paws and released another raging inferno. Cynder groaned in pain as she brought her wing around to shield the wounded side of her face.
Realising she had had enough, she leapt into the air, before diving on top of Vetar, claws outstretched and jaws wide open in a savage roar. He snarled, kicking out and throwing Cynder off him, before they both stood up and glared at each other. Vetar let out another growl, before he rushed towards Cynder with a loud roar, leaping into the air to slam himself down on top of Cynder. Cynder leapt out of the way, sending Vetar slamming face-first into the ground, before leaping on top of him. She raked her claws down his back, drawing quite a lot of blood, but Vetar threw Cynder off his back and turned his head, breathing another strong inferno at Cynder. She staggered backwards from the intense heat, and Vetar stood up, growling as he advanced slowly on Cynder. Suddenly, he cut his fire attack short and leapt at Cynder through the smoke, catching her unprepared. He aimed blow after blow at Cynder's face and chest, knocking the wind out of her as she was forced backwards, Vetar continuing to walk forward. Cynder attempted to lash out at Vetar, but he was prepared, and swept his tailblade around, catching both of Cynder's forelegs, putting large, bloody slits in them. Vetar then grabbed Cynder's head firmly in two forepaws and slammed it forcefully into the ground once. When Cynder rose her head from the ground, blood was dribbling slowly from her left nostril and bottom lip, and her forehead was stained red as the fresh blood from her match with Blitz was smeared across her face and into one of her eyes. Cynder blinked furiously, coughing and spitting up the blood that welled up in her mouth from her lip, before she felt another heavy blow across her chest, and she keeled over in pain, letting out a loud cry. She didn't have the guts to say 'stop', but she was in a bad spot, and she believed that Vetar may have bested her.
But she wouldn't say 'stop' without one last attempt to win. She lowered her head and brought it up into Vetar's chest, digging her horns securely into Vetar's chest as she lifted him off the ground with a strained roar. Then, she threw him to the ground and swiftly bit down around Vetar's neck, tasting his blood mingling with her blood on her tongue. After a while, Cynder was given the win, and she removed her jaws from Vetar's neck. They were both breathing heavily after the battle, and Cynder had only just made it through Vetar's onslaught of attacks. She was still disturbed by what he had said before the match, and she wanted to ask Vetar about it. It can wait. Cynder thought. I need to finish this. Three matches to go. Then I can ask him.
"You should grab some gems, Cynder. You've lost a lot of blood." Vetar breathed.
"I know. Everything hurts." Cynder replied, blood spilling from her lips as she spoke. "Good job, though. You almost won."
"I'm just glad it was a supervised training match. In war, an enemy would not be so merciful to let one live." Vetar deadpanned and walked off as Cynder froze.
Was he talking about me, or Spyro and his dark dragons? Cynder thought, the possibility that he could have meant her making her breath heavy. Did I almost kill him in the Dark War?
"Cynder?" Logron's voice pierced through her thoughts, bringing her back to the real world. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Cynder replied, before pausing to cough up blood on the arena, before she recomposed herself.
She walked over to the red gem storage chest and healed herself, sighing with relief as her wounds healed and pain ceased. Her face still burned slightly from the heat of Vetar's fire, and her head wound healed enough to leave a scar, like the bite wound on her shoulder from her match with Apata, but she was ready for the next match. She requested a drink to wash her mouth out, and a young fire drake nearby quickly ran out and returned with a small bowl of fresh, icy water. She lapped it up, staining the water in the bowl red as blood flowed from her tongue into it, but she was content soon after as the blood was washed from her maw, before she walked back to the ring and nodded to Logron, telling him she was ready for her fourth match with Molron. Logron turned to the younger fire dragon and told him to enter the ring, which he did.
Cynder watched as Molron stood opposite her, and she could tell that the young fire dragon was nervous now that he was standing in a ring with her. "You alright?" Cynder asked, her voice steady and firm.
"Yeah, I'm just a bit nervous." Molron replied. "You really give a supervised match a different air to it, you know?"
Cynder scoffed. "I guess I have that effect on people." she muttered.
"Three… two… one… FIGHT!" Logron shouted.
The first thing Cynder did was dive into her shadow and run towards Molron. She leapt out of her shadow and slammed headfirst into the fire dragon's chest. Molron was unprepared for the attack. He let out a yelp of shock as he fell over. Cynder then leapt on top of Molron, raising her tailblade to end the match quickly, not wanting to have to put up with any more pain and bloodshed than she already had. She watched as Molron squirmed pitifully underneath her, and she lowered her tailblade to place it against his neck to end the match.
But then Molron did something unexpected. His body was suddenly engulfed in fire, and Cynder leapt off Molron, her paws burning painfully. Molron stood up, his legs quaking, as the fire around his body died away. "That was unexpected." Cynder said, shaking her left forepaw which had been charred slightly more than her other paws.
"That's something not many fire dragons can master." Molron said, his confidence slowly building up. "But it's something I've been able to do since I was seven."
"That's nice." Cynder said, before running towards Molron again.
This time, Molron was prepared. He opened his maw and breathed a huge stream of fire at Cynder, who leaped out of the way, still continuing on her course towards Molron. Molron then engulfed his body in fire before lunging at Cynder, his face contorted into a determined scowl. Cynder and Molron collided heavily. Molron aimed two huge swiped at Cynder's face, but Cynder dodged the both of them, before lowering her head and running her horns through Molron's chest in an upwards motion, causing blood to spray everywhere. Molron fell backwards, and the fire from around his body disappeared. When Cynder saw the smoke around Molron's body, she suddenly registered pain in the top of her head, realising that she had burned herself from Molron's fiery coating around his body.
Cynder was interrupted from her thoughts as Molron charged at her, leaping into the air before aiming a downward blow across her face. Cynder staggered backwards as pain erupted from her right eye as Molron's claws raked down the flesh around it. Blinking out blood, Cynder watched as Molron raised his claw for another attack. Cynder decided she would show Molron her own fire attack, breathing out scorching black fire as it engulfed Molron. Molron let out a loud cry as he staggered out of the black inferno, breathing heavily. Cynder closed her mouth and leapt at the discombobulated fire dragon, pinning him to the ground, before realising that he might cover his body in fire again. He didn't, and Cynder placed her tailblade against his neck.
"Cynder wins again!" Logron announced, and Cynder withdrew her tailblade.
"Nice win." Molron groaned, breathing heavily.
"Thanks." Cynder replied, as she helped Molron to his paws. "That was a good fight, Molron.'
Molron staggered slowly out of the ring, and Cynder breathed a sigh of relief. She only had two matches to go until she was finally done. Cynder watched as her next opponent, Tyrax, walked into the ring, a slightly arrogant look on his face. Cynder was shocked when Tyrax spoke as he stood across from Cynder. "I've noticed that you've only used shadow and wind in the last four matches, Cynder. Why aren't you using poison and fear?" Tyrax asked.
"Well… poison is incredibly lethal, and fear is… well… I don't want to put anyone through the experience I've put others through with my fear element. Trust me, I've even accidentally used it on Volteer once. He did not enjoy his experience at all; he was stuck in a fear coma for about twenty minutes, and I was forced to sit outside of the recovery room, hearing his loud screams." Cynder explained. "I really don't want to end up using those elements on allies, and especially in a controlled environment."
"Cynder's right." Logron said. "When Volteer came to us later that day after the fear coma, he was very anxious and jumpy. I was confused as to why until he told me that Cynder had accidentally used a siren scream on him."
"I'm not scared of a little scream." Tyrax scoffed.
"It's more than 'a little scream', as you call it!" Cynder retorted.
"Well I don't want you to hold back. Use all your elements on me." Tyrax said.
"What?! Absolutely no way will I do that! Especially with poison!" Cynder cried, wondering if letting Tyrax fight her was a good idea.
"Fine then. Don't use your so called 'lethal' poison. But I want you to use your fear element on me, and when you do, don't hold back." Tyrax ordered.
"I'm the one giving orders here, Tyrax." Logron said in a dangerously low voice.
"No." Cynder said darkly, glaring menacingly at Tyrax. "I'll use it. But only so that he knows that my dark elements aren't toys to be played with. Everyone here seemed to have underestimated me before all this, but I think it was mainly in my physical strength and abilities. And not anywhere near as much as Tyrax is underestimating me now. I'll use my fear element, but don't blame me for what happens."
"Big deal. I'm sure I can break that four-time winning streak of yours." Tyrax spat.
"Tyrax! That is not how we act around here. You've been told time and time again that an arrogant nature like that is not safe in a real battle, so we don't practise that kind of nature here." Logron scolded. "I guess this will prove to you the consequences being arrogant is. The use of the fear element is permitted for this battle only. Am I clear, Cynder?"
"Understood." Cynder said, staring darkly at Tyrax, who scoffed.
"Well, begin in three… two… one… FIGHT!" Logron counted.
Tyrax leapt at Cynder, who dodged the attack immediately. She flashed her claws across Tyrax's left flank, drawing quite a fair bit of blood. Tyrax growled in annoyance and released five earth shots in rapid succession. Cynder dodged the first three, but the fourth one hit her in the snout, and the fifth in the chest, the force of the impact causing the large pieces of rubble to shatter in a cloud of dust. Tyrax leapt out of the dust cloud and tackled Cynder to the ground, rearing his head and opening his jaws wide to bring them around Cynder's neck.
Cynder breathed black fire at Tyrax, engulfing his head in the burning hot flames, and he leapt off Cynder, crying out in pain and muttering in annoyance. He stepped back and released a few more earth shots, but Cynder dodged them. "Come on, Cynder! Where's that fear element you claim to use?!" Tyrax taunted.
"You really want to know, don't you?" Cynder groaned.
She opened her mouth and let out a shrill screech as visible red sound waves pulsed through the air. Cynder saw Tyrax's expression change from one of arrogance to pure terror immediately as the sound waves closed in on Tyrax. She immediately regretted admitting to his request of using her fear element, but she knew she couldn't have anyone trying to play with her dark elements if she was going to lead here.
Tyrax fell to the ground with a thud, shaking vigorously, pure terror painting his eyes. "Take him out of the ring!" Cynder called, and three stocky dragons rushed into the ring and moved Tyrax onto safe ground. "Step back! People have been known to attack nearby dragons when in a fear coma!"
The onlooking dragons stepped back to give Tyrax some space. Logron, however, prepared for the consequences, stepped close to Tyrax and sat down next to him, whispering comforting words to him. He seemed to want to reach out to stroke his shoulder comfortingly, but hesitated and pulled it back, knowing that might scare him even more. Cynder, still standing at the edge of the ring, noticed that Tyrax's breathing was getting faster and hoarser each breath. Small whimpers made their way out of Tyrax's throat, and Cynder prepared herself for what was to come, her heart beating savagely in her chest as she waited for the inevitable.
Tyrax screamed, long and loud.
It was torture to Cynder's ears to watch Tyrax as he screamed and writhed on the ground, clawing at the air and salivating. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Tyrax roared, tears streaming from his distressed brown eyes and spittle flying from his lips, his words slurred as the saliva bubbled in his mouth. "GO AWAY! PLEASE!"
I'm sorry. Cynder thought sadly as Tyrax continued to lash out in fear, her heart breaking for him despite his previous attitude towards her.
She watched as some dragons turned to leave, concerned looks on their faces as they glared awkwardly at Cynder. "NO!" Logron bellowed, causing Cynder to jump. "Stay here. You all need to see this. If it goes on for any longer than twenty minutes, I'll call it quits and send him to the infirmary."
They all stood there for about five minutes while Tyrax screamed in utter fear. After those five minutes, his screams began to die out, and his body began to loosen up. Tyrax's breathing returned to normal, and the cloudiness left his eyes. He swallowed large gulps of saliva to get rid of the overflow of the fluids inside his mouth, and looked around frantically with fearful brown eyes, trying to figure out where he was. "Are you… are you alright?" Cynder asked quietly.
"Like hell I'm alright!" Tyrax rasped, realising what had happened and looking up at Cynder with fear. "What was that?"
"The reason why I didn't want to use my fear element." Cynder deadpanned. "You're lucky I didn't use poison. You'd be in a much worse state now."
"What did you see?" a dragon piped up.
"My… my worst nightmare." Tyrax muttered, his voice shaky as he wiped the excess saliva off his lips. "A zombie apocalypse. I hate the thought of the undead. They were everywhere. And there was so… much… gore. It was everywhere. Blood, guts, intestines, brains, everything. It was terrifying."
"I'm so sorry I put you through that." Cynder apologised.
"Then why did you do it anyway?" Tyrax accused.
"Because you forced me to!" Cynder scowled. "And so that you know that my elements aren't something to be toyed with and taken lightly. They are a curse put on me by Malefor. I never asked for them. I never wanted those damn powers!"
Tyrax just stared at Cynder before looking away and nodding, shuddering from his terrifying experience. Logron looked up at Cynder, his face reddened slightly, from fear, Cynder guessed, after watching a close ally go down in utter fear. "I think… I think we'll postpone our match for tomorrow." Logron stammered. "We've had a lot of chaos just now, and it might be best if everyone rested up a bit."
"You're right. I think that will be best. Especially for Tyrax." Cynder replied quietly.
"Alright, everyone!" Logron called, standing up. "You get an early night off. If you want to stay here and leave at normal time, that's all fine with me, but you can go home now. But out of everyone, I want everyone who fought with Cynder to go home and have a rest. Especially Tyrax. Chat with her, maybe. Get to know her better, as you were of the first to interact with her. But what you all just witnessed is a lesson to everyone that Cynder's elements are not toys to play with. They are highly dangerous, especially her poison element. If she must provoke her poison element, stay clear at all costs, or it may cost you your life. Like Cynder said, her poison element is highly lethal. Even more so, I've seen it. And the fear element makes you see things you never want to see. Tyrax was just lucky that he got the short end of it. I've seen victims of Cynder's fear element in a fear coma for three hours before, and it is not fun, let me tell you that much. Understood?"
There were many murmurs of agreement from the dragons in the room. "Alright, you can leave now. I would like those who fought with Cynder to catch up with her and maybe get to know her a little more." Logron ordered. "But if Tyrax feels out of it, he's free to retire for the night immediately."
"No. No, I'll go. I, uh… I don't want to get on Cynder's bad side." Tyrax groaned as he stood up.
"Uh, I won't be mad if you feel like you can't come with us." Cynder said as she walked down from the ring. "If you feel you need to go, then do so. I won't force anything else upon you for now."
"No. I'm coming. I feel like after what happened today that this might be my only chance to get to know you better." Tyrax insisted. "Now, I'll go wait for you guys outside."
And with that, Tyrax left the room. Cynder sighed sadly as she watched the unsettled warrior leave the room, his head hung low. "That went terribly." Cynder muttered to herself.
"At least you showed him what you're made of." Apata said from beside her, making her jump. "You showed us all what you're made of."
Cynder stammered wordlessly before replying, "Thanks, Apata."
"Now, are we leaving or what?" Blitz asked, walking up to Cynder and Apata, followed closely by Vetar and Molron.
"We should go out and grab some food, perhaps." Vetar suggested. "After all, I think Tyrax needs a little something in his belly."
"Yeah, he looked so scared that something may have come out his rear end!" Molron chuckled.
Cynder glared angrily at Molron, causing the young warrior to falter. "My elements are not something to joke about. Didn't what you just saw just prove that?" she scolded, before walking out of the room, followed by Vetar and Blitz. She called back over her shoulder as she left, though. "But in case you didn't see, and you do still want that knowledge, something did."
Apata stayed behind to whack Molron in the back of the head with her club. "Now's not the time for your terrible jokes, Molron." Apata growled. "Now are we going, or what?"
With that, the earth dragoness whirled around and left with a huff. Molron groaned with annoyance as he followed her to catch up with the dragons that had already left.
Okay, so I got myself a beta-reader (thanks BirmanDragon!) so I'm hoping the occasional issues that have been coming up recently can be prevented much easier now. This chapter had a lot of problems actually, despite how good the chapter actually was, so I'm glad I managed to get my beta-reader in on this chapter because the issues it contained were pretty detrimental to how it read and played out.
But aside from that, another nice and long chapter with a whole heap of nice action scenes. Really happy with Cynder's hesitation with Vetar, and the scene with Tyrax. Anyway, interested to know what you guys all think.
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To Derick Lindsey, some intervention from the ancestors will happen. And to be honest, it's really only been a few weeks since Spyro's corruption at this stage. The ancestors took down Malefor two years after he was resurrected (not sure if this has been said yet but it's not that big of a spoiler, but Malefor was resurrected a year after Spyro and Cynder were trapped in the Time Crystal at the end of The Eternal Night), so there's a pretty big time span there.
As for Pyron, he has a very big role in Purple Legacy, mainly in Parts 1-3, so I haven't forgotten about him, nor have I forgotten about Freeze, Rubblerust and Electrika.
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Well, that's it for now. Hope you all enjoyed, and Chapter 18 will probably be up soon as I wrote two chapters for Part 2 of Purple Legacy over the past week. I also got back into writing for Part 2 of Fazbear, meaning I can get more chapters uploaded for Bitten (it's been much harder to write for Fazbear than I originally thought when I decided to rewrite it, which is why it's so behind Demonised).
Poll on my profile is still up, and will remain up until Part 2 or 3 most likely, before I'll find some way to get some more voting up (probably through Google Forms as it's the easiest one to use) in relation to the short-story part of the series.
Goodbye people!