"WHAT?!" Cynder shouted as she ran out from the restaurant, gasping when she saw Dark Peak out on the horizon.
There was a deep, rumbling explosion as bright green orbs shot out of the top of Dark Peak, where the purple energy containing the shadowclaws would normally come from. They rose high in the sky and arched, turning and shooting down towards Warfang and the many other dragon cities and towns surrounding Dark Peak. They seemed to increase speed as they hurtled down towards their target, and unlike the dark missiles, Cynder couldn't make out any life forms inside.
Then she realised why. "THEY'RE MISSILES OF PURE POISON! FIND COVER!" she roared, and ran back to the restaurant, only to collide with someone that she knew all too well.
"Cynder! Get out of my way!" Electrika scowled, scrambling to her paws when she saw who had rammed into her.
Cynder looked up as everything around her glowed green and gasped. "MOVE!" she cried as she breathed a gust of wind at Electrika, sending her flying.
Cynder stood up and leapt out of the way, only just avoiding the poison missile as it hit the ground, sending bubbling green liquid spraying everywhere. "Don't touch me, you creep!" Electrika screamed.
"Well find someplace to take cover, or you'll be poisoned!" Cynder scowled.
"I'll never listen to you, you murderer!" Electrika retorted.
"MOVE, YOU IDIOT!" Cynder screamed, her voice cracking as she leapt at Electrika, knocking her out of the way as another poison missile hit the ground.
"I said, don't touch me!" Electrika repeated.
"I wouldn't have to if you would just listen to me!" Cynder scowled.
"Well for your own information, I can take care of myself!" Electrika roared, lunging at Cynder, who dodged her attack.
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?!" Cynder shrieked. "This is no time for a fight!"
"Well too bad!" Electrika spat. "And maybe I can kill you, right here, right now!"
Electrika lunged at Cynder, tackling her to the ground. Cynder struggled from underneath Electrika, but the electric dragoness held firm. Eventually, with a loud growl, Cynder kicked out with her back legs, kicking Electrika in the chest and knocking the yellow dragoness off her. Cynder rolled over onto her belly to get back onto her paws, but Electrika ran forward and clamped her jaws down around Cynder's tail, before she threw the dark purple dragoness around in a long arc. Cynder soared in the air, muttering curses under her breath, only to be downed by a large poison missile as it splattered everywhere, somehow missing Electrika. Cynder spluttered and gagged as she swallowed the foul poison, staggering about in the slippery liquid as she tried to get to her paws. While Cynder was immune to the effects of the poison, the taste was still extremely unsavoury, and she almost threw up, before she was downed by another heavy poison missile, getting even more venom in her mouth and down her gullet.
Cynder was suddenly aware of Electrika laughing behind her. She looked around to glare angrily at the nineteen-year-old lightning dragoness, before regretting the speed of the motion. She immediately threw her head down once more as she retched twice, throwing up violently into the already unsavoury puddle of venom that Cynder stood in. Electrika's loud cackles increased at the sight of Cynder relieving herself of her stomach fluids. Cynder growled, waiting for her stomach to finish churning. She looked back at Electrika, before shouting, "Look out!"
Electrika was already prepared as she leapt out of the way of the poison missile, which splashed everywhere, spraying all over Cynder once again. Cynder forced her mouth shut, stopping the venom from getting in, but it still sprayed all over her lips, and she had to force her salivary glands to produce enough saliva to coat her lips with it in an attempt to wash the venom off them.
Cynder stood up once she was satisfied that the venom was gone from her lips and shook her body, spraying the remaining green liquid on her body in every direction. "I guess…" Cynder croaked mainly to herself, her throat sore from vomiting. "I can thank Malefor for my poison element… It doesn't affect me!"
Electrika's face fell, and Cynder smirked. "You… you monster!" Electrika cried, her voice quivering as fear entered the heart of the youth. "You're going to use that to your advantage, a-a-and you're going to coat your paws in poison and then smear it all over me to kill me!"
"No, I wouldn't!" Cynder said, only to be sprayed by more poison as another missile exploded around her. "I'm not a monster, Electrika! I don't want to hurt you!"
"Really? I don't believe that you damn liar! You killed my parents!" Electrika scowled.
"And that wasn't her damned fault!" a familiar voice roared, and Cynder turned to see Vetar standing out in the open.
"Vetar! Get back inside!" Cynder ordered.
"Not until this young dragoness does so herself! Get inside!" Vetar roared.
"You can't give me orders!" Electrika scowled.
"Insolent fool! I am a warrior of the Warfang Army, and I have told you once to get inside! Now get in here or I'll make you!" Vetar commanded firmly.
"FINE!" Electrika retorted, turning to walk into the restaurant, the nearest building that wasn't someone else's house.
As she walked past Cynder, she gave Cynder a menacing look before growling, "I'm not done with you. Remember that."
Cynder just watched as Electrika stormed inside the restaurant, with Vetar following her. He glanced back at Cynder as he walked inside, and Cynder knew what he wanted. He wanted her back inside as well. She wanted to get inside anyway, so she stepped out of the puddle of poison she was standing in and with a gasp, leapt sideways, narrowly missing another poison missile. She shook the huge gunky bits of poison off her, before absorbing the remaining gunk into her body, making sure she was clean and uncontaminated before she returned inside.
Apata ran up to Cynder upon the dark-coloured dragoness returning to the interior of the restaurant, breathing a sigh of relief. "Are you alright?" she asked.
Cynder smiled, nodding. She looked around, seeing the distressed faces staring at her. She felt the need to address them. "So, for the time being, we all need to stay inside. I'm guessing this will only go on for about an hour, and then we should be fine to return outside. No one leaves until the Toxic Hour is over." Cynder announced. "Do I make myself clear?"
There were a few murmurs of agreement. Cynder heard Electrika inhale to speak, only to have Vetar wrap his tail around her mouth, preventing her from speaking, causing her to mumble incoherently. She turned her head as she watched Vetar lean in close to the young dragoness, a snarl on his face, before he whispered in a low growl to her. Cynder could only just make out the low, whispered words. "If you say a word, I will slice your claws off, got it? I don't want to hear another word about your attempts to kill Cynder." he growled, before moving away and unwrapping his tail from Electrika's jaws. "Don't speak. At all. Nod if you understand."
Electrika nodded, her lips pursed in a thin line as she glared savagely at Vetar.
Every dragon stood in silence for about fifteen minutes as they watched the poison missiles hail down outside. Even the chefs had abandoned their tasks of making food. But really, no one was in the mood to eat. The only sound that was heard was the deep rumbling sounds of the impacts of the poison missiles, and the occasional rustling sound of scales moving against cobblestone as dragons pawed anxiously at the ground or adjusted their sitting positions.
Then, there was a loud slamming sound, followed by a scream. Cynder's attention was drawn to it immediately, as did Tyrax's and Blitz's. Vetar was too content on keeping Electrika in control, and Apata and Molron were helping calm down some elderly dragons in their six-hundreds. "Come with me." Cynder said to Tyrax and Blitz. "Be very careful. We don't know what this could be."
"There's… there's…!" a she-cheetah cried, standing in the middle of the kitchen area where several other cheetahs, moles and dragons stood, frozen in shock. She had shrunk in on herself, shaking heavily as her paws were raised to her chest, and her tail was tucked in between her legs in a sign of fear.
"What is it?" Cynder asked.
"It… It was… I… I-I-I don't know. I only s-s-saw eyes. They were completely black with green irises!" the she-cheetah whimpered, before she pointed towards where the sound had come from.
"Sounds like the eyes of the shadowclaws, except green." Cynder said. "It could be another member of Spyro's army. If so, we need to be careful."
Cynder, Tyrax and Blitz stalked toward the door in which had been slammed. It was a storage closet. Probably containing food items and ingredients. Cynder raised a paw and pushed the door open. She braced herself, ready for something to leap out at her. There was nothing.
Cynder looked nervously at Tyrax and Blitz, and held her breath as she looked back into the closet to step carefully inside. She took a few steps in, until the room was illuminated with green light as two eyes opened, revealing eerie green rings of light. Cynder stepped back, bracing herself, as, with a loud screech, Cynder was tackled to the ground.
Razor sharp claws dug into Cynder's shoulders and hot breath thundered in her face as a set of gnashing jaws snapped mere centimetres away from Cynder's snout. Cynder attempted to keep the jaws away from her face with her forepaws. She kicked out with her hind legs, throwing her attacker into the air, before she stood up and shuffled backwards, returning into the open kitchen, waiting for her attacker to lunge out at her.
Suddenly, green gunk shot out of the closet, hitting Cynder square in the chest as her attacker launched itself out of the closet. Cynder gasped at what she saw. A black dragon with bright green stripes painted on the dragon's scales, and it had just used a poison attack on her. "It's a poison dragon!" Cynder shouted. "Everyone get back! Let me deal with this!"
Not pausing to make sure everyone had obeyed her, Cynder launched herself at the poison dragon, tackling it to the ground. She clawed wildly at the poison dragon's chest, trying to open up a cavity she could shove her tailblade into, for the scaly hide of the poison dragon was significantly thicker than that of a shadowclaw, so a lot of hacking and bloodshed was obviously involved. Cynder was suddenly flung into the air as the poison dragon kicked out with its hind legs, before immediately getting to its paws and leaping on top of Cynder, thrusting its tailblade into her stomach and swiping at her chest. Cynder fought to get out from under the poison dragon, but she was hit in the face by another glob of poison. With a pained grunt, she lashed out savagely, sending the poison dragon soaring into the air and landing onto a work station, sending food, pans and plates falling onto the floor, the fragile items shattering. Cynder stood up, wiping her eyes as they burned painfully. She may have been immune to the toxins inside the poisonous attacks, but if it hit her somewhere painful, like in the eyes, in still stung. And right now, her eyes burned savagely, and her vision went blurry.
She swung her tailblade around, narrowly missing the poison dragon as it lay on the work bench, knocking another collection of pots and pans onto the ground, causing them to clatter noisily on the ground. The poison dragon recomposed itself as it rolled clumsily off the work bench, running around the bench and leaping at Cynder. Cynder was prepared this time and lashed out with her claws, digging her claws savagely into its left eye socket, feeling her way around the eyeball before yanking it out with a loud, wet ripping sound as the optic nerve was decimated. Dark green blood spilled out of the orifice like a river as the black eyeball rolled along the floor, leaving a trail of the oddly coloured blood. The poison dragon screeched in pain and rose onto its hind legs, spreading its wings out threateningly as venom dripped from its jaws in a way similar to saliva. Cynder breathed black fire at the dragon, aiming down its throat, causing the poison dragon took a mouthful of scorching hot flames. It fell to the ground, screeching and spluttering in pain as smoke bellowed from its maw and nostrils.
Cynder swung her tailblade yet again, cutting open the top of the poison dragon's head. It squealed in pain as a torrent of dark green blood sprayed from the wound, and small amounts of bright green mist escaped from the wound. Cynder remembered seeing mist similar to this a few days ago, and she knew what she had to do. With a savage growl, she hacked her way through the poison dragon's head, cutting her way down into its skull as it shrieked in agony, unable to defend itself as pain seized its form. The flesh around its forehead was completely decimated, spilling insane amounts of blood and sending bellowing clouds of mist into the air. Cynder swung her tailblade around one final time, taking off a huge slice of meat with a loud shattering sound. Shards of green crystal flew everywhere, and the light faded from the poison dragon's eyes before it lay before Cynder, dead, its head covered in a green, bloody pulp, chunks of the dark green flesh lying in every which way in the kitchen.
"The crystal's in its head this time." Cynder said. "Which changes everything."
"Is it dead?" a mole asked from behind a large ice dragoness, who was also hiding behind one of the workbenches on the opposite side of the kitchen.
"Yes. It's dead." Cynder confirmed.
"What was that?" a fire dragon asked.
"A poison dragon, probably a new member of Spyro's Dark Army." Cynder explained. "Chances are, it has another name, like the shadowclaws, but until we learn of it, it's just simply a poison dragon."
"So… we're safe?" the she-cheetah from earlier questioned, her voice still quaking with fear at the sight of what had scared her earlier, as well as the amount of gore that was spilling everywhere.
"In theory, yes. You'd need to re-stock your pantry completely, as the poison dragon would have most likely contaminated the food in there, and everything at this work station will need to be cleaned thoroughly or replaced." Cynder said. "The blood is toxin-free but contains other unpleasantries, so you should be careful around the gore as well."
"You said 'in theory'." Blitz said. "What do you mean by that?"
"That can't have been the only one." Cynder replied, turning to Tyrax and Blitz, who stared at the poison dragon corpse with horror. "Don't you see? If there's one, many more will be out there somewhere! And surely the Toxic Hour can't just be the poison rain! It's got to include the poison dragons too!"
"But what's the point of the poison rain?" Tyrax asked.
Cynder widened her eyes as a terrifying thought struck her. "I don't know if this is true, but since I can absorb poison, the poison dragons might have the same ability. My guess is it makes them stronger!" Cynder said with shock. "We need to warn the others!"
"We need to find Logron and tell him!" Tyrax exclaimed.
Cynder nodded vigorously, before she ran out into the dining room again, receiving shocked faces from everyone. "Vetar, Molron, Apata! We're leaving!" Cynder shouted, as Tyrax and Blitz ran up behind her. "Now! I'll explain on the way!"
Cynder ran outside, with her five companions following her. She then heard another voice, and she groaned in annoyance. "I'm coming with you! There's no way I'm letting you out of my sight!" Electrika shouted, catching up with them.
"Get back inside!" Cynder screamed.
"Never!" Electrika scowled.
Cynder let out a scream as she breathed a gust of wind at Electrika's left side, sending her toppling over to her right, as a poison dragon leaped out from behind where Electrika was, its claws landing on nothing but cobblestones. Cynder let out a roar as she ran towards the poison dragon, hacking savagely at its throat with her tailblade until its head came off its neck, rolling pitifully on the ground, torrents of dark green blood spilling from both ends of its neck. Cynder looked down at Electrika and growled. Electrika was unsure what to make of the moment. Both she and Cynder had been splattered in huge, unpleasant amounts of the dark green blood that belonged to the poison dragon, and she did not like it one bit. Nor did she like the look on Cynder's face. "Get back inside now!" Cynder ordered menacingly, and, hesitantly, Electrika complied, as she stood to her paws and walked back inside the restaurant.
"Where do we go now?" Vetar asked.
"Back to the barracks." Cynder said, her menace from before suddenly non-existent. "Logron said some dragons would be free to stay and continue training. If anything, the dragons there would know where Logron went if he's already left. If he's still there from earlier, then lucky for us. We need to inform the dragons there of the poison dragons and fast."
"Alright. Let's go." Apata said.
"And be careful!" Cynder added. "These dragons are much more lethal than the shadowclaws. Their poison could kill you in a matter of minutes."
With that, Cynder and her companions ran as fast as they could towards the barracks, still dodging the occasional poison missile that fell from the sky. They had become much less frequent, the range of the poison missiles moving in an arc towards other cities. They all knew that the other cities would have to fight on their own for now as Warfang was in as much trouble as the rest of the cities – they couldn't send any reinforcements for other cities right now.
Suddenly, Apata let out a shriek of terror as a poison dragon leapt at her, tackling her to the ground as its jaws dripped with venom, maw wide open, exposing its dark throat and wet green tongue. It hissed loudly, before letting out a deep growl, its throat vibrating with the force of the growl, sending flecks of spittle splattering onto Apata. Cynder was about to leap at the poison dragon, but Blitz was quicker. He tackled the poison dragon to the ground and brought his tailblade down with immense force on the poison dragon's neck, sending dark green blood spraying all over his yellow scales. He rose his tailblade, before bringing it down once again. He repeated a third time, and on the fourth time, the poison dragon's head was separated from its body with a spray of green gore.
Blitz helped Apata to her paws, and Molron yelped as he was sprayed with poison, another poison missile landing on the ground a few metres away from them, but the poison spray only managed to get Molron. Molron fell to the ground clutching his eye as a horrid sizzling sound came from his body. Cynder ran to Molron and watched with horror as his eye began to decompose, becoming grey as it began to wither, red blood slowly seeping out from around his eye socket. Molron tried to scream in pain, but it came out as a gurgle as pink foam began to form around his mouth. "I won't let you die now!" Cynder scowled, placing both her paws around the infected eye, focusing on her poison element.
She called the poison inside Molron's body to the surface of his flesh, before feeling the poison enter her body. She winced with pain, before her body absorbed it and the poison was gone. Cynder removed her paws and her heart sank. Molron's eye was greyed around the edges, almost black where the eye met the eye socket, and whatever wasn't grey or black was pink or bright red, almost all the blood vessels in the eye popped from the immense swelling caused by the poison. The flesh around the eye was also swollen quite a fair bit. His gaze was cloudy and his breathing was jagged and sharp, his head shaking, from both fear and periodic shock from the poison that had entered it. In this state, there was no way Molron was going to make it to the barracks. They'd barely been running for a whole minute before this chaos. Even worse, she wasn't even sure if he'd regain his eyesight or not; the eye looked pretty badly damaged, even more so than Cyril's, as the poison had been in Molron's eye long enough for a lot of the important parts of it to corrode – it was not a mere burn wound in this case. "Apata, take him somewhere safe. The restaurant, someone's house, wherever. I don't care. And if you have access to red gems, use them on his eye immediately." Cynder ordered.
"Yes, Cynder. Molron, can you get up?" Apata said.
Molron groaned painfully as he tried to get to his paws, but fell to the ground, his energy wasted from trying to fight the poison. Apata walked to Molron and helped him up, allowing the young fire dragon to rest on her as they walked off, blood and gunk dripping down his face from his eye in a hideous sight. Molron was lucky Cynder got to his aid as quick as she did. Otherwise the poison would've spread to the rest of his body and disabled his legs, or some other part of his body. And after that, it would have undoubtedly killed him.
Cynder ignored the grim thought as she turned. "Come on. let's go." she said, and turned to continue running to the barracks.
Again, another minute had passed before they were ambushed by four poison dragons in a large courtyard. "Tyrax, you take the dragon near the library. Vetar, take the dragon in the direction we want to go. Blitz will take the dragon coming from the orphanage, and I'll take the one standing on the fountain." Cynder said, before leaping at her designated poison dragon.
The other warriors did the same. Tyrax had managed to dig his claws into the poison dragon's flanks, fighting hard to try and bring it to the ground, but the poison dragon was much stronger. It was stockier than normal, and with a growl, it swung its body around swiftly, causing Tyrax to lose grip on his target and sending him soaring into the front wall of the Warfang Library. Tyrax had also managed to take a fair bit of flesh with him as well, and dark green blood welled from the poison dragon's flanks. The poison dragon in mention let out a loud roar, which came out sounding like a deafening gurgle as its throat convulsed savagely inside its mouth, before a huge glob of poison shot out of the orifice. Tyrax let out a shout as he leapt out of the way, the poison hitting the wall behind him, and the resulting splatter only just missing him as he rolled on the ground, his heart beating heavily in his chest with fear.
Tyrax let out a roar as he released a large earth missile from his maw, which buried itself into the poison dragon's chest. The dragon growled in pain, staggering. It didn't have time to recover as Tyrax launched himself at the dragon, clamping his jaws around the poison dragon's neck, before twisting his head sideways, bringing the dragon's neck with him, and a loud snap was heard. Tyrax released the dragon, expecting it to fall over, dead. But it didn't. It snarled at him, twisting its head sideways to try and realign its broken neck. It had no avail, and it roared in frustration, turning its body to stare Tyrax in the eyes, its twisted, broken neck making it even more horrific as the snarling head stared at him sideways.
For a moment, Tyrax was crippled by his fear of the undead. If this poison dragon couldn't be killed by a broken neck, then chances are, it was wielding the power of the undead. Inhaling a quaky breath, Tyrax swallowed, trying to focus. "That's stupid." Tyrax reassured himself out loud, to try and help with his anxiety. "It's just dark magic. It's just dark magic…
"Which is what the power of the undead is. Oh, no! I can't concentrate! I… I… I don't know what to think anymore!" Tyrax panicked. "I'm going to die! I'm going to die right here, and I know it!"
Suddenly, the poison dragon fell to the ground as it was engulfed in bright electricity. Blitz lunged at the poison dragon and hacked at its head, flecking his body with even more of the horrid green blood. Eventually, there was a shattering sound, and the poison dragon fell silent. "Thank you." Tyrax breathed.
"Next time, try paying attention to what Cynder does. She has experience with dark creatures like this. You've already seen her take down one of these." Blitz said.
"I'm sorry. I got… I got scared." Tyrax shivered.
"Fear's normal in a situation like this, but you can't let it cripple you." Cynder said, walking up behind Blitz, her body painted with the most amount of green blood out of all of them. "You should know that."
Tyrax looked at the dark dragoness and nodded, feeling ashamed of himself. He watched as Vetar walked up to them, a large bleeding cut along his left flank. "We should go." he suggested.
Cynder nodded, and ran off in the direction towards the barracks, with Tyrax, Blitz and Vetar following. It was two minutes later when they managed to arrive. Cynder was surprised they didn't come across any more poison dragons, but they did have to dodge a few poison missiles. Vetar was almost hit twice, and Cynder was hit once, but it was better her than her companions. They ran into the barracks, and all eyes turned to them. "Where's Logron?!" Cynder bellowed.
"I'm here, why?" Logron asked, walking up to them. "I was just leaving."
"There's an attack on Warfang. Poison dragons. Much like the shadowclaws, except their energy crystal is stored in their head." Cynder explained. "They can only be taken down by decapitation or shattering of the gem inside their head, which must be hacked into to be destroyed."
"What, now?!" Logron shouted.
"WHY THE DAMN HELL DO YOU THINK I'M TELLING THIS TO YOU?!" Cynder screamed, her patience running short.
"Alright, very poor timing for this battle right now, but fine. Kravel, Oren, Parlin, I want you three to go with Cynder, Blitz, Tyrax and Vetar to try and fight these poison dragons. Marnix, Trevor, Schugarh, Prekia, and Ujuron, I want you to come with me. We'll go and find Apata and Molron and see if they're alright." Logron ordered. "Where and how are they?"
"Molron's been badly poisoned. I've taken the poison out of his system, but he's still physically weak. Apata's with him. They're in the vicinity of the restaurant we were at. Hojar's, I think it's called." Cynder said.
"Yep, I know the one." Logron said. "Do you have any ideas on what you'll be doing next?"
"I want to see if the guardians are alright. They didn't do so well last time they fought the shadowclaws." Cynder explained.
"That's a good idea; Cyril looked really out of it recently. Everyone else, go home. Protect your families. You heard Cynder, so you know what to do if you find a poison dragon." Logron bellowed.
"And be careful of the poison missiles." Cynder added.
"Alright, now go!" Logron shouted.
Cynder turned and left the barracks, with her original three companions following her, her three new companions catching up. Kravel was a large earth dragon who was quite a dark colour of green. His horns were unnatural for an earth dragon, sticking out sharply in a ring around his forehead and jawline, the feature generally exclusive to lightning dragons, suggesting some lightning dragon heritage. Kravel was in his sixties, yet looked to be the strongest dragon Cynder had seen today so far. Oren was a fire dragon in his forties, with a big stocky build similar to Vetar. He was missing his right eye, however, and there was a large patch wrapped around his head that covered the empty eye socket. Massive scars stretched along his eye socket from underneath the patch, and Cynder thought that it was probably sliced out. She hoped it wasn't her doing, but she pushed the ugly thought away before she could dwell on it for too long. Finally, Parlin was an ice dragoness. She was quite large, larger than Cynder, despite looking about a year younger than her. Her bright cyan scales shone brightly, and scars covered her left foreleg. Cynder noticed, as Parlin asked a question to Blitz, that Parlin's teeth were slightly longer than a normal dragon's might be. They were significantly thinner too, giving her more room to grow more of the thin, needle-sharp fangs in her jaws. Her form was also quite slender, similar to Cynder's.
Cynder snapped out of her attentive thoughts. If she wanted to know more about these dragons, it would have to be later. They needed to find the guardians and let them know about this. "Chances are, the guardians will be inside the Warfang Temple. I just pray to the ancestors that they haven't decided to leave yet." Cynder said.
"Well, we'd better go quickly, then." Parlin said, her voice deep, yet very feminine.
An odd look crept onto Blitz's face as Parlin spoke. Cynder wasn't sure what it was, and so she ignored it. Taking Parlin's suggestion into account, she ran off in the direction of the Warfang Temple, breathing heavily. Oren piped up from behind Cynder. "Wouldn't it be quicker if we go by flying?" Oren asked.
"It would, but if we get hit by a poison missile in mid-air it's likely to do more damage. It'd push more poison throughout the body as you fall, land, and try to stand up again." Cynder explained. "Plus, if we come across any poison dragons, it'd be more dangerous. They're faster, and would definitely be so in mid-air. It'd be safer for us on the ground. Not only that, but if someone's in trouble, we can get to them faster."
Oren didn't argue with that as they continued on their way. Vetar suddenly let out a shout as he was tackled by two poison dragons. Cynder turned back and shoved her horns into the flank of one of the poison dragons, hoisting it up into the air and throwing it on the ground next to her. Tyrax leapt on it as he began hacking at the poison dragon's head. Cynder brought her tailblade forcefully down on top of the poison dragon's neck, cutting it halfway, before raising it and bringing it down a second time, cutting the dragon's head clean off its shoulders.
Cynder turned to see Vetar pick himself up off the ground, Blitz and Kravel attacking the poison dragon savagely. They weren't as quick as Cynder and Tyrax had been, as the poison dragon turned its head, before clamping its jaws down on Blitz's right forepaw. It twisted its head and pulled, trying to rip the paw clean off the leg. Cynder leapt at the poison dragon, breathing black fire at its back, scorching not only the flesh around its spine, but severely burning its wings as well. The poison dragon reared its head and roared in pain, as Blitz fell to the ground, his paw bright red with blood. Cynder then swung her tailblade around and cut the dragon's head off its neck, satisfied with the spurt of gore, causing the disembodied head to roll pitifully on the ground for a few metres, a thick trail of dark green blood following it.
Kravel helped Blitz to his paws. Blitz winced as he placed weight on his wounded paw, withdrawing it immediately. "Are you alright?" Kravel asked.
"I can go on. I've experienced worse pain than this." Blitz retorted, placing his paw on the ground, wincing as pain seethed through it and blood continued to squeeze out of the bite wound.
"Alright, let's go!" Cynder scowled.
They continued on their way, and before long, they had made it to the Warfang Temple. "GUARDIANS!" Cynder bellowed as she ran into the Temple, using tones in her voice that many dragons wouldn't normally hear from her (her companions were certainly shocked at the sheer power behind her strong bellow).
Cynder's companions followed her into the Warfang Temple, as she let out another bellowing roar as she called the guardians again. "What?! What is it?!" Volteer's voice scowled from down the hallway, and when seven pairs of eyes turned towards Volteer, and the electric guardian recognised who was with Cynder, his face immediately fell. "What… what's wrong?"
"Cynder? What's the matter?" Terrador asked, walking up behind Volteer, with Cyril close behind him.
"There's another attack on Warfang. Poison dragons this time. There was a downpour of poisonous missiles earlier, too, coating Warfang in poisonous liquid. It could be for the poison dragons to absorb to increase their power." Cynder explained.
"Poison dragons? We need to go out there and fight." Cyril said.
"Not in your condition, Cyril. Your face has been battered enough. Your damned eye is still recovering, and I doubt you can fight if you can barely even see. You need to stay safe where that wound won't become permanent." Terrador spat back at the ice guardian.
"I'm coming, whether you like it or not. I will fight for Warfang, my home. And if I die thanks to my 'damned eye' as you call it, then so be it. There's nothing you can stop me for fighting for my home." Cyril scowled, before turning to Cynder. "How do we defeat these poison dragons?"
"They have a crystal similar to the ones in the shadowclaws, except located in its head this time. Like the shadowclaws, the only way they can be killed is if the crystal is destroyed, or if the dragon loses its head. To destroy the crystal, you'd need to hack into the dragon's forehead. Their scales are much stronger than the shadowclaws as well though, so it'll take a lot more work." Cynder explained.
"Alright, let's go." Cyril said, determined to fight for his home.
"You're not going, Cyril!" Terrador shouted firmly.
"If he wants to, then let him!" Volteer roared, defending Cyril for the first time in a long time. "Our home's in trouble, and you want him to stay back and cower?! If you were in Cyril's position, wouldn't you still want to fight, regardless of your gaping head wound?"
Terrador didn't reply. He glared daggers at Volteer, wanting the lightning guardian to stay out of it. But he had to admit that Volteer had a point. His home was in danger. If he was in Cyril's terrible position, he'd still want to fight to protect the city he had lived in for his whole life. He lowered his head, averting his gaze from Volteer's. "Exactly." Volteer scowled. "Now are we going or what?"
I'm back and I'm pretty happy with this one. Introducing a new species of dark dragon in Spyro's army, as well as Electrika's back yay!
I've been meaning to do some more 3D modelling over the past two days but I got distracted by playing Five Nights at Freddy's 2 yesterday (Night 6 is terrible because Foxy and BB are actually somewhat broken at points in Night 6, and it seems to be only Night 6) and writing Chapter 3 of Purple Legacy Part 2 today, but I'm gonna try and get into doing it tomorrow, which will be good.
…
Derick Lindsey: Yeah, Spyro's found the Sound Gem, so that's not going to be good for anyone. Glad to know that you liked the backstory bits in last chapter (especially Vetar's part – don't worry, he's not hypocritical like Electrika I can tell you that). Not sure if you misread this, because I definitely said that Blitz's nephew was also killed. The body was never found. But how are the poison dragons for you? They're gonna play a big part in the story, especially the next chapter.
Sun Fury: Good, I'm glad that cliffhanger turned out well. :D This chapter's ending wasn't too bad, but it still has that sense of dread at the end.
…
Thanks all for reading, and hope you enjoyed this chapter. Until next time, have fun with life, leave a review, and I'll see you around with the next chapter.