Two weeks passed. To Muras' frustration, Cynder continued to overwork herself with training and everything else she needed to do. He was happy, however, that she was focusing more on her close quarters fighting rather than with her elements, just to preserve her mana and let her essence core rest. She'd used her elements enough in her life; she was pretty much a master at using them.
Holding off from training too hard with her elements still didn't stop Muras giving her an earful whenever she saw him.
Her training was going well, however, as was that of the rest of the barracks. Record times were being hit in the ring while training against the venomfangs and shadowclaws as everyone continued to get more and more familiar with fighting them. Efficiency was skyrocketing.
Much more progress was being made over the last two weeks as well. At home, everything was going fine; Hunter was recovering and no longer on the verge of breaking down and wanting to kill himself. He'd made another visit to Kassaan, and while he didn't spend time there, knowing Kassaan still needed a lot of rest, it had done a lot for him. Hunter was slowly returning to normal. Or a 'somewhat' normal; he still had his depressive episodes and she had a good feeling that wouldn't go away, but he was faring much better than he was before Kassaan's first visit.
It was good to see a hint of the old Hunter starting to return; Cynder missed the old Hunter. Derilan had been very relieved too when he came over for a visit one day and saw Hunter in somewhat high spirits.
Cynder's plan for today was to catch up with her friends over lunch, which was something she hadn't had the chance to do all that much anymore. She didn't hear much from Pyron and Freeze anymore, and Rubblerust had almost gone silent. The last interaction she'd had with any of her friends was that day when Muras walked her home after having her essence core flare up with pain, and that wasn't the most pleasant of interactions. She understood Pyron's hate for Muras, but she had no clue why he was so protective about her. Cynder knew Pyron cared for her—he was her friend after all—but it seemed to be almost excessive to her, the way he was going about it.
It would be good to try and have a positive interaction with Pyron, without Muras by her side; she figured it didn't help that the only times she'd really been around Pyron recently was when the purple dragon was also there. Maybe being alone would make a difference and bring Pyron's real self back around.
Lunch came around and Cynder made her way to the cafe, walking in to see Pyron, Freeze and Rubblerust already sitting at a table, one chair left vacant for her. "Hey, everyone," Cynder greeted. "I'm sorry I'm late."
"It's fine; I understand how busy you can be with… all of this," Rubblerust said with a shrug, before taking a sip of his drink.
Cynder just nodded. "So, how is everyone doing? Everyone okay?" she asked.
"Um… not really," the green dragon replied. "I've been having a lot of anxiety attacks recently. I'm just terrified about a lot of things, constantly panicking and all that. The silence between attacks hasn't helped either. It makes me feel like something bad is about to happen. This feeling has just been… tearing me up."
That explained why Cynder hadn't heard much from Rubblerust.
She turned to Freeze and Pyron, raising a question to ask them the same thing. Pyron cleared his throat, his eyes dropping from Cynder's gaze to the table quickly. "I uh… I'm doing alright. A-a-as best as I can, I guess, in times like this," he murmured. "I'm still very bitter about Muras being here."
Freeze elbowed Pyron gently. "Pyron, we've talked about this," she groaned softly.
"Freeze, it's alright," Cynder said, before continuing once the ice dragoness backed away from her foster brother. "I want you to understand this: I don't care if you hate Muras or not. I know he does not have a good background but I think he's proved himself. I trust him. Well, mostly; it's a little hard here and there, but I do trust him. Muras is an ally and I think it's very beneficial to have him on our side. He's trying his best to get better and to prove himself to everyone. You don't have to like or even forgive him, but please try and get along, and don't start anything."
Pyron just sighed, leaning back, before opening his mouth and inhaling, ready to speak. Cynder quickly shut him off however.
"On top of that," she added firmly, "you do not need to worry about me. I am safe around him, I know that for a fact. I don't know what your little overprotective episode two weeks ago regarding me being with Muras was about, but I don't want it happening again, understood?"
The red dragon inhaled again, preparing to snap back, but he thought better of it and looked down at his paws. "Understood," he mumbled.
"Great. Now, I'm sorry that had to happen here; let's move on and just enjoy our lunch together. Honestly, I should probably—"
Cynder was cut off by a large explosion. Everyone in the cafe jumped and yelped, before silence filled the building.
"Nice job, Rubblerust, you jinxed it with your stupid 'it's too quiet, the silence between attacks hasn't helped'," Pyron scoffed.
"Pyron, shut it," Freeze scowled, slapping him across the head.
Bricks and rubble suddenly took to the air as a large dragon slammed through it, roaring as it scanned the room. Terrified gasps filled the room at the new, grotesque dragon standing in front of them, black with red stripes, four eyes and jagged, crooked teeth.
The dragon raised itself up onto its hind legs, opening its mouth as it glowed with a vicious red colour. Cynder's eyes widened, recognising what this was, before she ordered, "EVERYONE GET DOWN AND COVER YOUR EARS!"
Then she released a siren scream, as did the strange new dragon. The red sound waves collided with each other, halting in mid-air as each siren scream fought against the other. Neither dragon wanted to let their guard down; doing so would send a siren scream hurtling straight at them.
It didn't take long before Pyron ran around and towards the dragon, before slicing its head clean off its neck with his tailblade. Its siren scream dissipated and Cynder's flew out of the whole in the wall. Cynder quickly closed her mouth, running towards the dead dragon, having a look at it.
"What the hell is that?" Pyron exclaimed.
"It seems to be some sort of a fear dragon," Cynder breathed. "This isn't good; Spyro has a third species of enemy dragons for his army."
Two more of the fear dragons leapt through the hole in the wall, and Cynder was quick to engage. Unfortunately she only managed to get one of them distracted, and the second one rushed forward, letting loose siren screams and flailing its tail around viciously. Pyron was quick to engage, lunging forward and swiping at the dragon, leaving long, bloody claw marks down the side of its face.
The fear dragon snarled at Pyron, and before anyone could react, it quickly released a siren scream at him, knocking him to the ground. Rubblerust ran towards Pyron, standing protectively in front of him as the fire dragon squirmed on the ground, crying under the weight of his own deepest, darkest fears.
"Rubblerust, get out of there!" Cynder shouted as she tried to leave her own fight to help him out, knowing he had very little combat experience outside of school, which she knew he barely passed.
Of course, her fear dragon tackled her to the ground, stopping her from getting to her friend. The earth dragon swallowed nervously, frozen in place. He was forced into action as the fear dragon lunged at him, claws swinging at him wildly. Rubblerust was only able to dodge three of the swipes, before the fourth one caught him in the eye. He howled in pain as blood oozed from the wound. The fear dragon swiped at him again, this time raking him across the throat, deep.
A constricted gurgle left him as he fell to the ground, blood bubbling from his neck and lips. The fear dragon snarled, before its head was hit by a large beam of ice, encasing half of it in a large ice cube.
Having finally escaped her squabble and decapitating her opponent, Cynder rushed to the scene and grabbed the fear dragon's head, slamming it to the ground. There was a loud shattering sound as the ice smashed everywhere on impact, before Cynder slammed the dragon's head into the ground again. A loud, disturbing crack followed, the fear dragon still did not fall still.
It snarled at Cynder, struggling against her grasp, before she slammed its head into the ground two more times, even harder than before, sending more loud cracks echoing into the air. After the second, the fear dragon ceased to move.
Cynder quickly ran over to Rubblerust, frantically trying to find a pulse. Her heart broke as she couldn't find one. She cursed, turning to the corpse of the fear dragon and kicking it twice. Worried murmuring arose among the other guests, as well as the waitresses and some of the chefs starting to peek out from behind the kitchen doors. Several of the guests, including Freeze, were crying.
"Why did he have to die?" Freeze sobbed.
"I don't know… Damn it to hell I don't know," Cynder scowled, her voice quivering.
"Is uh… Is Pyron gonna be okay? Are the others in fear comas going to be okay?"
Cynder looked around. Pyron and the other small handful of dragons in fear comas were laying on the ground, crying and pleading incoherently, some of them quaking somewhat. Nothing seemed too severe however, plus it was too early to tell how strong their fear comas were. Generally the screaming and writhing didn't start until a few minutes after entering the fear coma.
"They should all be fine," the dark purple dragoness said. "They should hopefully all be awake in about ten minutes to an hour."
Cynder swept her eyes across the room, eyeing each of the dragons staring at her. "Can anyone here fight?" Cynder boomed.
There was a small pause, before one earth dragon in his forties piped up. "I can, mistress," he said.
"Cynder is fine, thank you," the dragoness replied, before she beckoned him over. "Anyone else who can hold their own in a fight, get over here too. That includes staff; service is not important right now."
Another distant explosion sounded, proving her point. With that, the earth dragon, a young nineteen-year-old fire dragon, and a bulky ice dragon in his thirties, made their way over. Another earth dragon stepped forward too, however this time being from the group of chefs.
"So, you four can fight, yes?" Cynder questioned.
"Yes, I was top of my class in combat," the chef said.
"I didn't ask for your backstory on how well you can fight, I just asked if you can fight well, understood?"
"Yes, Mistress Cynder."
The dragoness rolled her eyes at the title but she didn't address it, instead continuing further with the briefing. "Now, I'm going to have to leave, go and see what's going on. There will be more than three dragons here, and I'm sure that either Spyro or one of his generals will be here too. This means I won't be here should any more dragons arrive, so I'm going to need you four to work together and help protect everyone here, got that?"
She was met with a series of nods, the four dragons too nervous to verbally acknowledge her. Cynder sighed, before continuing, "Basically, you need to be light on your feet, and very quick to react. There is now a possibility of three dragons that could come through those doors, or… that wall… at any time, so I'm going to have to give you a quick briefing."
Cynder went through the shadowclaws and venomfangs, mentioning where their weakness was and how to kill them, in which Cynder said the easiest choice would probably be decapitation. She had no idea how the new fear dragons worked so she attempted the same thing and that did the trick.
"So what do we do?" the bulky ice dragon asked. "Just… decapitate anything?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Cynder replied. "And be careful; especially with the venomfangs. I won't be here to help should one appear, so you'll need to make sure no one gets spat on. That goes to everyone else; venomfangs are no light matter. Now, I need to do one last thing real quickly, and I apologise if anyone's squeamish."
With that, she moved to the fear dragon that she had crushed the skull of, rolling it over and beginning to cut into its head, trying to find a crystal lying somewhere, similar to that of the shadowclaws and venomfangs. She'd almost made her way around the whole head, opening it up and taking off large chunks of flesh and scales. She'd gone pretty deep before she hit the bone of the skull, and immediately she could tell how fragile it was.
That was what the loud cracks were: the skull cracking. Through the mass of muscle, flesh and blood covering the skull, she could see several large cracks in the skull, and out of it rose a thin red mist. After prying open the skull with many more large cracks and horrid sounds of bones grinding and snapping against each other, she could see a red crystal lying inside the skull, broken and going black, the red mist now bellowing from it. The crystal was essentially attached to the brain, which was punctured and bleeding from small shards of broken skull.
"Damn, that makes it hard. You either have to go insane head trauma to break the brain and the crystal with the skull, or just straight up decapitate it… Decapitation it is," Cynder murmured to herself, before turning back to the four dragons and wishing them good luck and telling them to stay safe. She made her way to Freeze and told her the same thing, before the dark purple dragoness turned and left the building.
The first thing she saw was smoke rising into the air in the distance. Immediately, she bolted off in the direction of the smoke, not fully ready for what she might find. She was already still trying to process the fear dragons.
The streets were hauntingly empty, as either everyone was in their houses, hiding, after the first explosion sounded, or laying on the ground dead. There weren't many corpses, but there were some, all lying against the walls of buildings, slumped over with blood spilling from their throats and mouths.
Cynder hadn't made it too far before two siren screams came at her from her left and right, causing her to dive to the ground to avoid them, before she was tackled from behind by a shadowclaw. Two fear dragons rushed out at her, maws glowing red as they prepared to release another siren scream.
With a roar, Cynder raised herself up, tossing the shadowclaw off her, before spitting venom at both the fear dragons' paws. She knew it wouldn't do much due to the crystals in their brains but it would hinder them slightly.
Turning around, she saw the shadowclaw already picking itself up off the ground. Quickly she swung her tailblade around twice, slicing the shadowclaw across the eye, before slicing it across the throat. It gurgled, before Cynder swung her tailblade around a third time, chopping off the shadowclaw's head.
A snarl from behind alerted her to the fear dragons. One of them leapt out at her, jaws open as its jagged, crooked fangs glistened with saliva. Cynder sidestepped, her tailblade shooting up and catching the fear dragon on the underside of the jaw. The slice ran down its neck, leaving a long crimson line of blood streaking down its chest. The other fear dragon rushed at her too, and Cynder sidestepped yet again, aiming her tailblade at the dragon's neck again, trying to get a better cut than the last one. The tailblade went cleanly through the fear dragon's neck, and with a spray of blood, the dragon collapsed to the ground in two pieces.
The first fear dragon snarled, letting out another siren scream, which Cynder only just managed to dodge. Unfortunately, she lost her balance, and wasn't able to right herself before the dragon tackled her to the ground, snarling and clawing at her with mangled, rotten claws. Cynder spat more venom at the dragon, getting it right into the dragon's eyes. It screeched and fell off her, clutching its face with agony.
Cynder quickly noticed that her poison element did not seem to affect the fear dragons well, for whatever reason. It damaged them, but it had nowhere near the same effect as it would on a regular dragon; maybe Spyro gave them some sort of resistance to it.
Realising Cynder was wasting time thinking about the fear dragons' possible resistance to the poison element, Cynder seized whatever opportunity she had left, getting up and slamming her tailblade down onto the fear dragon's throat, separating its head from its body. She sighed, looking at her tailblade, which was covered in thick blood, both black and red from the two different types of dragons. She shook her tail, trying to get as much blood off it as possible, before continuing her run towards the billowing smoke.
As she turned a corner, she saw two young dragons trying to fight off a fear dragon; off to the side lay a dragoness in a fear coma, crying and quivering. The worst wound on her body was a deep cut on her shoulder that bled profusely, but it was nothing too problematic.
Cynder ran forward, grabbing the fear dragon as it tackled one of the two dragons to the ground, before tossing it to the side and jumping on top of it. She punched it in the face a few times to disorient it, before getting off it so she could get her tailblade around. As quick as she stood, her tailblade whipped around and severed the fear dragon's head.
The two dragons looked at Cynder with shock, breathing heavily, worn out from the fight. "Thank you, Cynder," one of them panted.
"You're welcome, now please take your friend and get her inside. Look after her," Cynder ordered.
The dragons looked at each other, before nodding and running to their friend. They lifted her up onto their backs and ran off as fast as they could with a dragon on their backs. Cynder stood in place for a few moments to watch where they went. She watched them run into a small store, before she nodded and ran off again.
Another explosion sounded, much closer this time, and as Cynder got closer to the source of the three explosions, she saw the Warfang Temple, smoke billowing out from the doors as small bits of purple flame licked at the architecture. Cynder swore to herself, running up the stairs and into the foyer of the Temple.
Inside, she was met with a pretty intense scene. The room was filled with smoke and purple fire, and there were large cracks in the walls where combatants had supposedly been thrown into. One such occasion was Logron, as he lay against a wall right now with a slight hole in the wall above him; the yellow dragon was bleeding pretty badly and was unconscious, lying limply. Hunter and Derilan were hiding behind a decapitated statue of Cyril, where Hunter was tending to his son.
Derilan's legs were twisted in a hideous, unnatural bend, and blood streamed from his arms, nose and bottom lip. Hunter sat there, stroking his son's bloodied shoulders soothingly, as blood matted his own fur. He was topless, his tunic appearing to have been ripped off or discarded mid-battle as an ugly, bloody wound stretched across his abdomen, appearing almost black with the amount of thick blood swelling from it.
The middle of the room was where all the action was. Blitz and Molron, two of the soldiers that fought with Cynder during the Toxic Hour when the venomfangs first appeared, were currently fighting a fear dragon, but this one appeared to be much larger, much scarier and more fierce than the other ones; Cynder had a good feeling this was the general of the fear dragons.
Right beside them stood Spyro and Muras, slicing and clawing at each other, as well as sending intense elemental attacks at each other. Another large purple explosion shook the walls as Spyro released a beam of convexity at Muras, who dodged and countered it with his own. Muras' beam of convexity hit, luckily, slamming into Spyro's left shoulder. He snarled and staggered backwards, flexing the claws on his left paw before shaking it.
Cynder leapt into the fight scene, rushing towards Spyro. He quickly saw her coming, releasing a beam of plasma at her, sending her flying backwards. She collided with Blitz, knocking him to the ground. Immediately the large fear dragon was standing over them, maw glowing red. Cynder spat venom straight up at him, shooting up into his open mouth.
The dragon howled, staggering backwards as he spat at the floor, trying to get as much venom out of his mouth as possible. Cynder quickly got up, before helping Blitz to his feet. "Who is this?!" she cried.
"His name's Fa'roth," the young electric dragon panted, reaching up and wiping blood from a cut on his forehead. "He's the general of the fearbringers; Spyro has a new species of dragons on his side."
"I know; I've come across five already," Cynder said.
"What are their weaknesses? Do you know?" Molron shouted, overhearing them as he launched himself onto Fa'roth's back, trying to force him to the ground.
"Energy crystal in their brains; it's too hard to get in because it's inside the skull, so the best way to kill them is to just straight up decapitate them," Cynder explained. "Go for the neck!"
Molron tried to respond in acknowledgement, but his 'okay' turned into a scream as Fa'roth threw his weight around, throwing the fire dragon off him. Blitz immediately ran towards the fearbringer general, before leaping into the air and curling into a ball; an orb of electricity surrounded him before a huge slew of lightning bolts shot out at Fa'roth.
Blitz then ceased his attack as he noticed Cynder running in, giving a massive jump and gripping onto Fa'roth in a similar fashion to Molron. Cynder had much more luck hanging on; she was slightly larger than Molron and Fa'roth was having a hard time throwing her off. She found she also had a bit of luck throwing him around too.
Out of the corner of her eye, Cynder could see Spyro and Muras fighting across from them. Spyro's maw glowed purple as he powered up a beam of convexity, and at the way Muras was moving, she was sure that Spyro would miss. He was aiming in their general direction, so with all her might, Cynder swivelled around, pulling on Fa'roth to rotate his body and pull him backwards. Just in the nick of time, she moved him far enough to put her out of harm's way, and him into it. The purple beam of convexity shot forward, landing directly into one of Fa'roth's four eyes.
The general fell to the ground with a howl, smoke billowing from his face as a massive burn spread around his eye, which was now blinded. Spyro saw this and cursed her, but Muras was quick to intercept Spyro, flogging him across the face.
With her attention locked onto Spyro now, Cynder also leapt at him, venom dripping from her jaws. She latched onto him, biting down around his neck and injecting him with venom. Spyro screamed, before sending a massive surge of electricity through his body and shocking Cynder, causing her to lock up and fall off him with a heavy thud.
The Dark Overlord turned to her to release a beam of convexity at her, but Muras came to her rescue as he punched Spyro in the face. Spyro's head whipped to the side, and his attack only barely missed Cynder's tail.
Cynder quickly stood up, swiping her claws at Spyro, who side-stepped both attacks, before retaliating with his own heavy swipes. He just barely missed her eye, but still managed to get a few cuts along her snout, causing blood to dribble down and into her mouth. Muras tried to attack Spyro again, but the Dark Overlord was prepared and headbutted Muras, knocking him to the ground from mid-leap. Spyro stepped forward and immediately grabbed Muras' head from the ground, before slamming it several times into the floor, violently. Cynder moved forward to try and grab onto Spyro to stop the assault on Muras, but she was sliced across the chest as Spyro swung his tailblade around from behind him.
She staggered backwards, almost too far backwards as she isolated herself in the room, causing Fa'roth to run forward and tackle her to the ground. He landed two good punches on her face, before he raised his claws to try and slice her face open. A large fireball hit Fa'roth in the back of the head however, averting his attention to Molron and Blitz as they ran up behind him.
Still on top of Cynder, Fa'roth let out siren screams at the two young dragons, who dodged each siren scream, in some instances only just, before Blitz leapt forward and pushed Fa'roth off Cynder. Fa'roth kicked Blitz in the stomach as the electric dragon leapt onto him, launching him back into the air and landing on the ground, winded. Cynder was up by that point, and she and Molron both ran towards Fa'roth, attacking him from both sides.
Fa'roth pushed Molron aside forcefully, and Cynder was surprised that from the large thud he made, Molron didn't break anything, as he was almost immediately back up. The large fearbringer then turned to her, lunging forward and biting down around her neck, his sickly needle-like fangs puncturing her flesh painfully.
Blitz was quick to Cynder's rescue, rushing forward with his head bent down, ramming himself into Fa'roth's flank. He let go of Cynder with a grunt, before turning around and slicing Blitz across the chest. The yellow dragon collapsed, crying out in pain, before he staggered back to his feet. Blood splattered onto the floor as it streamed from his chest.
Cynder walloped Fa'roth in the face, knocking him to the ground, before proceeding to stab him in the abdomen with her tailblade. She managed to get five decently deep punctures before Fa'roth kicked out at her, and she had to step back a bit.
Fa'roth slowly struggled to his paws, and Molron was already up on his paws, ready to attack the fearbringer. Cynder was quick to shut him down.
"Molron, no! I want you to get Blitz, Logron, Hunter and Derilan out of here and to the infirmary!" she ordered.
"But Cynder, what about you and Muras?!" the fire dragon cried.
Fa'roth was almost on his paws, so Cynder raised both her front paws in the air and threw them down onto Fa'roth's snout, knocking him back to the ground and giving him a very bloody nose.
"We'll be fine; I've been up against worse! Now get them out of here; THAT'S AN ORDER! I do not want any more casualties!"
Molron nodded, before running over to Logron and working him onto his back. "You can still walk, can you Blitz?!" Molron shouted.
"Yes?!"
"Alright, I want you to take the cheetahs; I'm going to be occupied enough with Logron!"
Blitz nodded; he had a massive cut across his chest but he could still at least move, so he limped his way as fast as he could over to the cheetahs to go and pick them up. Hunter overheard Molron and immediately began to decline the offer. "No! Take Derilan; I can still fight!" the cheetah pleaded.
"NO, HUNTER!" Cynder snapped as she dodged a swipe from Fa'roth, before reaching over and putting him in a headlock, choking him. "This isn't safe and I don't want you getting killed just to have revenge on Spyro!"
"This isn't about revenge anymore!" Hunter roared. "This is about protecting those I love! And if it comes at a price, then so be it! I'm a chief, Cynder! This is my job! I couldn't do it in Avalar, but maybe I can do it here. Maybe I can do it now. This is my chance to redeem myself, fight alongside friends and great allies, and to protect my family!"
"Go! You don't have much time!" Muras shouted.
"I'm staying! Take Derilan and Logron and go!" Hunter repeated. "That's final!"
With that, Derilan was whipped into the air by Blitz and placed onto the dragon's back, before Blitz quickly limped off as fast as he could. "NO! I WILL NOT LEAVE MY FATHER!" Derilan pleaded, trying to get off Blitz, but finding it incredibly uncomfortable and difficult to move from his current position.
"GO! I LOVE YOU, SON!" Hunter shouted back.
"FATHER, NO! DAD!"
Derilan's broken, pleading cries were drowned out as Blitz and Molron left the building. It hurt Cynder to hear the young cheetah scream like that, and she was sure it hurt Hunter more. But he needed to get out; in Derilan's condition, there was no way he could fight or do anything; he needed immediate medical attention.
Pain knocked Cynder out of her thoughts as she was walloped across the face. She looked back at Fa'roth and only narrowly missed a second fist being thrown her way. Fa'roth swung at her a third time, and she caught his paw in her jaws, biting down hard, feeling the taste of blood flood over her tongue. The fearbringer general growled in pain, cursing at her, before he punched her in the face with his free paw, causing her to let go with a cry of her own. Fa'roth wobbled slightly as he tried to regain balance, trying to get used to his mangled, bloodied paw.
Cynder rushed forward and headbutted Fa'roth in the face, before grabbing him and hurling him to the side, right into Spyro who was fighting Muras right beside them. They both scrabbled to get up, but Spyro was thrown off balance as a large, stabbing pain flared up in his right arm. He raised it and flailed it about, knocking Hunter, wielding his sword, to the ground.
Seeing Spyro prepare to attack the small cheetah, Cynder released a stream of shadow fire at him to distract him from Hunter. She was immediately counteracted as Fa'roth protectively rushed in and bit down around her neck. Muras was quick to rush forward and bite down on Fa'roth's neck, and with a massive amount of force, the purple dragon pried Fa'roth off Cynder's throat.
Muras threw Fa'roth to the side, which was perfect timing as Fa'roth soared directly in front of Spyro, who had released a beam of convexity at Muras. The convexity slammed into Fa'roth's chest, pushing him away and sending him slamming into the wall, a scorching burn mark on his chest. He groaned, slowly getting up and shaking himself off.
In the meantime, it was a free for all against Spyro, as Cynder, Muras and Hunter all turned on the Dark Overlord. Cynder swung her claws around, leaving multiple deep cuts over Spyro's face, and Muras released a beam of electricity to stun him. Hunter thrust his sword into Spyro's arm again, using it to pull himself up onto Spyro's back. Spyro jostled around, trying to throw Hunter off, but there was no success as Hunter dug his sword into Spyro's back and held on for dear life. It was only when Spyro energised his body with fire that Hunter leapt off, feeling the bottom of his pawpads start to burn from standing on Spyro's superheated scales.
Cynder moved to slice Spyro across the face again, but was tackled to the ground by Fa'roth. Muras moved to help her, but Fa'roth swung his tailblade around and nicked Muras on the neck; it wasn't deep enough to be fatal but it was bad enough to get the purple dragon to step away with a hiss.
There was a heavy thud as Spyro breathed another beam of convexity at Muras, throwing him backwards. The purple dragon hit a large statue of Ignitus, feeling it crack under the combined force of his weight and the attack.
Fa'roth quickly began to claw at Cynder, tearing at her chest relentlessly. She struggled under his weight, but her efforts to throw him off were useless, as he had her pinned in a very good position, rendering her unable to move. Cynder screamed as flecks of blood sprayed from her chest as Fa'roth continued to claw at it.
Suddenly, he reared and staggered off Cynder with a scream, as Hunter began hacking viciously at his legs, spraying deep red blood everywhere. Cynder quickly stood and whipped her tailblade around to try and cut Fa'roth's head off, but Spyro ran around and caught her tail in his mouth, before pulling it violently and therefore pulling her back to the ground with a slam as she knocked her head into the bloodstained marble floors.
Cynder could barely recover by the time Spyro grabbed her head and slammed it into the ground; she could feel blood leaking from her nose. Her face was bashed into the ground yet again, and her vision began to get blurry. She struggled against Spyro, thrashing about, but Spyro stepped on top of her firmly, pinning her to the ground. She was weakened from the blows she'd just received, completely disoriented and unable to process much; there wasn't much more she could do against Spyro.
She looked up, seeing Fa'roth kick Hunter to the side; the cheetah flew to the side at large speeds, landing with a heavy thud into one of the marble pillars in the Temple.
They were done for.
Until Spyro was pulled off her.
Confused, Cynder rolled around to see a new ally fighting Spyro, both dragons raised on their hind legs as they pushed against each other, clawing and snapping. It didn't take long for Cynder to notice that the dragon was… made out of stone?
Her vision cleared, and she realised that it was indeed a dragon made of stone, but it was more than that. It was a statue, specifically the statue of Volteer; the figure and face was way too familiar to her.
She looked over to where Muras sat among the statues, still lying against the wall, arms outstretched towards the statues and eyes glowing a bright green. Green wisps of magic swirled from his paws, travelling into the statues around him. Slowly, Cyril's decapitated head rose into the air, connecting itself to the rest of the body, before the statue broke free from its platform and became alive. The statues of Terrador and Ignitus followed suit, the rubble rising and reattaching to the statues as the cracks disappeared, before they both became alive as well.
Statue-Ignitus rushed to statue-Volteer's aid to fight Muras, while the other two rushed to Hunter's aid to fight Fa'roth, who was closing in quickly, ready for the kill. Each statue let out loud screeches as they fought against Spyro and Fa'roth, trying their best to cause as much harm while avoiding all oncoming attacks. Statue-Volteer didn't quite survive that long as a beam of convexity tore through it, sending stone and rubble flying everywhere in a large cloud of dust.
Cynder looked back to Muras, who slumped over, breathing heavily, raising up a claw to Cynder to say 'give me a moment, I need to recover'. She nodded, before standing and returning to the fight with Spyro. Of course she was immediately hit in the face again, but she retaliated quickly and gave the Dark Overlord the same treatment.
She tackled Spyro to the ground, clawing at his chest, and statue-Ignitus stepped forward to put a heavy paw down firmly onto Spyro's head. He grunted in pain, before a beam of convexity tore through the paw, turning it to rubble, and the statue staggered backwards, hopping slightly due to only having three paws now. Spyro released another beam of convexity, shooting through statue-Ignitus' head. The statue's head exploded in rocks and rubble, before the rest of the body fell to the ground with a crash and a slight crumble.
All through this, Cynder continued to claw at his chest, before a large beam of purple electricity shot out of his chest. She staggered backwards to get away, but his body was electrified as well, and so she fell off him, quaking and quivering from the electricity running through her body.
Spyro kicked her, before punching her again in the face. "You're weak, Cynder. You'll never be able to beat me, so stop trying," he growled, before a beam of convexity tore into his face.
The Dark Overlord scowled as he staggered backwards, only for Muras to lunge at him. Cynder just coughed, spitting up blood as it streamed down her face. Everything was in pain.
Cynder's attention was diverted as she felt someone tap on her shoulder. It was Hunter, holding a small handful of red gems. "What the…? Hunter, where did you get these?!" she exclaimed.
"I remembered about the storage rooms from last time I was here eleven years ago when the guardians first summoned me here to give me the task to look for you, and sure enough, the gem storage was still there. I went out and grabbed them while those two statues had Fa'roth busy," Hunter explained.
Cynder looked up at Fa'roth and the two statues; statue-Cyril and statue-Terrador were faring very well against Fa'roth. She figured that they were immune from Fa'roth's fear element since they didn't have a brain or consciousness, and being made of rock, most melee moves would do pretty much nothing. They had several cracks scattered along their bodies however, so she figured that they were likely close to being broken apart.
The dragoness turned back to Hunter. "I appreciate it, but what about you?!" she cried, eyeing the massive bloody cut streaking across his abdomen. "Red gems don't work on you!"
"You and Muras need them more than I do, and in this situation, you're more suited for the fight! If I get wounded even more, to the point of death, then so be it, but I will not let you and Muras be taken out of the fight! Now take them!"
Cynder sighed, grabbing some of the red gems and holding them against the most severe wounds on her body. She sighed in relief as they began to close up. Hunter nodded, before he ran to Muras, who had just been knocked down, his eyes currently glowing green as the guardians' statues began to reform again. Blood streamed heavily from the side of his head and his shoulder.
Groaning, Cynder stood, rushing back into battle amongst the four reanimated statues. She lunged forward, aiming at Fa'roth, who was the closest target to her, before slicing him across the chest viciously. She swiped at him again, and he leapt backwards, but Cynder whirled around and closed the space between them as she whipped her tail around and made her initial cut even deeper and larger.
Blood started to gush from Fa'roth's chest, staining the already dark red scales with an even darker red. He snarled in pain, cursing Cynder. He inhaled, about to say something to her, but statue-Terrador rushed up from behind and bashed Fa'roth in the head with his mace-like tail. Of course this was made of rock, so the heavy impact brought a large cloud of dust and some rubble shooting out, but statue-Terrador left the interaction with his tail still mostly intact.
Statue-Volteer rushed forward towards Fa'roth, ramming into him at large speed and causing the fearbringer general to topple over to the ground. Cynder broke into a sprint and pressed down on his head firmly, before bending over and biting down firmly on his neck. The gross, metallic taste of blood washed over her tongue, but she didn't care.
Statue-Volteer and statue-Terrador started beating Fa'roth up as Cynder held him down, riddling his body with kicks and several blows to the stomach and ribs with statue-Terrador's mace tail. Cynder twisted her head slightly, feeling something pop inside Fa'roth's neck. She tried to pull even more, attempting to break as much as she could or even try and bite Fa'roth's head off.
The effort was for naught as a burning sensation filled Cynder's side and she was thrown off Fa'roth. She looked in the direction of the attack and saw Spyro just turning from her direction to Muras' direction as he dodged a convexity beam. Spyro's mouth and nostrils billowed with a purple smoke, and Cynder realised she had been hit with convexity.
She looked at her side where a large, hideous burn was located. Cynder struggled to her feet, the pain in her flank making it slightly hard to move. But once she was up, she made her way to Fa'roth once more. A large stream of shadow fire burst from her jaws, engulfing Fa'roth. He cried out in pain, staggering out of the fire, only to get grabbed by statue-Terrador. They squabbled a bit, both trying to grab each other and get out of each others' grips at the same time, grabbing and hitting and clawing. Cynder jumped onto Fa'roth's back, throwing the large dragon off balance, and all three fell to the ground.
Statue-Terrador was the first to stand, shaking a bit of rubble from his body, before he stepped forward and prepared to swing his mace tail forward. Fa'roth rolled out of the way, before awkwardly spinning himself around on the floor to sweep his tail around and under statue-Volteer, who was slowly approaching him. The statue of the electric dragon was flipped over, falling flat on the ground with a thud.
Fa'roth rolled to the side again as statue-Terrador, now standing, was now swinging his mace tail at him again. The fearbringer general quickly got to his paws before grabbing statue-Terrador's head and throwing the animated statue to the ground with force. He didn't stop there however, proceeding to slam the statue's face into the ground. It took three slams into the ground before the statue's head crumbled and it fell still.
Cynder was back up on her feet by now, rushing towards Fa'roth and slugging him across the cheek. He staggered backwards, only slightly disoriented, before he lunged forward to grab her. Cynder dodged, but couldn't dodge his second attack as he whirled around and swept his tail at her.
It slammed into her chest full-force, sending her flying backwards, right in the middle of the fight with Spyro, Muras, Hunter, and the statues of Ignitus and Cyril. Well, just the statue of Ignitus; Cyril's statue lay in a pile of smoking rubble and ash on the ground. Statue-Ignitus wasn't in the greatest shape either, with a horn completely missing and a large crack running up his arm. Hunter stood on statue-Ignitus' back, clutching his bloody abdomen; a new wound, large and bleeding profusely, had also appeared on the left side of his head.
She was quick to duck as an earth missile shot over her head from Muras, watching it dig into Spyro's right shoulder. Muras murmured a flustered apology but Cynder didn't acknowledge it, immediately becoming focused on Spyro. He only just managed to pull the earth missile out of his shoulder before Cynder rushed up to him, ready to claw relentlessly at him. He parried every attack of hers, and she was getting more angry the more time passed.
Eventually Spyro saw an opening and clawed Cynder's nose open, leaving a long bloody mark across the centre of her snout. She staggered backwards, but Spyro was quick to grab her by the arm, digging his claws in so hard they drew blood, before he threw her arm up into the air and made her lose balance. Cynder landed on the ground with a heavy crash.
Statue-Cyril and Muras were quickly onto Spyro now, as Muras gave the Dark Overlord a nasty punch across the jaw. Spyro staggered backwards a bit, before statue-Cyril rushed forward and grabbed Spyro's paw, holding it firmly to the ground so he couldn't move. Statue-Ignitus ran towards Spyro next, but the Dark Overlord retaliated quickly, breathing a beam of convexity at it. With a cloud of dust and rubble, the statue dissipated, and Hunter leapt into the air just in time, hurtling down towards Spyro.
Muras moved forward and grabbed Spyro, holding him down just like statue-Cyril. Spyro didn't have the time to ready up another beam of convexity before Hunter came down onto Spyro, his sword at the ready. Hunter intercepted with the top of Spyro's chest where it connected with the base of his neck, making contact with the blade of the sword, using the blade to slide down Spyro's chest the way a knight would commonly use a sword to slide down a castle to slow his fall.
Spyro cried out in pain as his chest became painted with a long stream of dark red blood, pouring out like a flood from his deep wound. In retaliation he breathed out another stream of convexity and flailed his head around to get both large dragons off him. Like statue-Ignitus, the electric guardian's statue also dissipated from the attack, and Muras leapt backwards to avoid it, but just barely; he still got nicked in the top of the head, leaving a slight burn along his cranium.
The Dark Overlord wasn't done yet. Free and flailing about, he stood and swung his tailblade around at the person that had brought him great pain. Hunter immediately fell to the ground, clutching his chest, as blood streamed down his torso. An agonising cry tore from his jaws, and Cynder screamed in protest.
She stood, anger seething throughout her body, and released a massive stream of shadow fire at Spyro, the largest she had ever released. Spyro cried out in pain as he staggered backwards, and Cynder rushed forward, closing her mouth and ceasing the fire stream. She leapt into the air, crashing down on Spyro with large slashes before he could recover. She clawed at his face, which was slightly burned from the fire, painting his face with small streaks of red. Then she raised her tailblade and swung it around, slashing it across his chest twice, making the massive red line painting his chest even uglier.
Spyro roared, before breathing a plasma beam from his eyes at Cynder, propelling her into the wall at the other side of the room. He righted himself with a heavy, croaky cough, before he called out to Fa'roth, who had just landed a heavy blow to statue-Volteer's head, breaking it apart into rubble. "Fa'roth! We're going, now!" he croaked.
With a low hum, Fa'roth's eyes flashed with a bright red glow, before he walked up to Spyro. "Are you okay, Master?" the general questioned.
"I'm fine, now let's head back," Spyro growled, before raising his head and breathing a large beam of convexity up into the roof of the building, breaking a massive hole so they could get out. He then turned to Cynder and added, "You may have won this time, but next time we meet, you're dead."
Spyro breathed another beam of convexity at Cynder, short but still damaging, as a large burn wound stretched over her stomach, before the Dark Overlord spread his wings and propelled himself up into the sky, out of the hole in the ceiling. Fa'roth gave a short glance towards Cynder and Muras, before he followed Spyro's lead.
It was time for recovery, but this time Cynder could luckily say it was on both sides. She hadn't seen Spyro this wounded before; they were finally getting close to killing him. It was a combined effort, especially on Hunter's side of things; the cheetah dealt the first big wound.
The moment Hunter's name entered her mind, Cynder immediately left her thoughts, heart racing as she searched the floor for Hunter. There, in the centre of the room, lay the cheetah, dark blood streaming onto the ground and staining his paws red. She could hear his shuddering breath.
Quickly she ran up to him, and was devastated to see him paling, his eyes hazy. Hunter's chest was almost covered in red; there was so much blood. He was breathing sharp and irregularly, gasping for breaths that hurt to take. Blood was also spilling from his mouth; he gave a hideous, wet cough and spat up even more of the red liquid.
Cynder's eyes welled up with tears as the sense of victory was immediately replaced by a sense of loss. Hunter was gone, and even he knew it. No one could survive this amount of blood loss.
The weight of what was happening began to hit her. Her childhood friend was about to die. He was the first person apart from Spyro and the guardians to believe she was a changed dragoness. He looked out for her and stood up for her. And he was dying. Out of all her first friends, he was the last one alive; she was about to lose him too.
She was unaware of Muras stepping up beside her and wrapping a comforting wing around her shoulder. Normally she would've shaken it off, but she was too broken and focused on Hunter to even notice. It hurt to stare at the cheetah as he writhed and fought to simply breathe as he lay in a pool of his own blood as it flooded out of him.
"Th-th-thank you, Cynder… for everything. For being my f-f-friend, for… s-s-saving me…" Hunter choked, blood bubbling from his mouth as he spoke.
"Saving you? What? How?! You're dying; how have I saved you?!" Cynder cried.
"You s-s-saved me from myself. I would… I would have been dead… long, long ago… had you not been around. I thank you for that," Hunter murmured, pausing briefly as he seemed to space out, before he blinked and his eyes focused back on her. "You have been… a great friend. I wish we could have seen each other m-m-more, especially… especially on better terms. But i-i-it is what it is. You're a great, s-s-s-strong dragoness, C-C-Cynder. I believe in you, a-a-and I believe… I believe you can… pull through."
"Thank you," Cynder replied. "You were a great friend to me, and you were there for me whenever I beat myself up over the things I did as the Terror of the Skies." Cynder felt Muras tense as she said this, but she ignored it. "You have been a great friend and I believe a great chief, despite what happened to your village. I believe you were a great mate, and a great father."
"Damn it, my f-f-family… Cynder, tell them… tell them I love them, and I'm s-s-s-sorry… that I couldn't… come back."
"I will. I know they'll be proud of you."
Cynder didn't know if Hunter heard her. He fell still before she could finish.
The waterworks came, harder than it had in a long time. Immediately, Cynder rushed for solace inside Muras' grasp, breaking down after watching the last of her first ever friends die. Even though she had new friends, she felt lonely, without a friend.
The old Spyro, her mate and best friend, was died. The guardians were dead. Hunter was now dead. Every one of them had been killed by this new Spyro, this monster.
It felt wrong, being in the embrace of another purple dragon, more specifically her old master, the one who ruined her life. It was… ironic.
Cynder didn't know how long it was before she stopped crying. Immediately, she turned and made her way to the infirmary; healing herself wasn't even on her mind. She just wanted to find Derilan and tell him what had happened.
I'm back, and back at it again with the dark stuff hahahaha
So I ended up with Covid as well, but I'm doing good now and I'm back out of isolation now and getting back into everything, and so it's good to be able to get this posted. Chapter 51 should hopefully be posted soon (been working on that as well; it was one of the few things I was able to do during isolation). Hope this past week has been much better for all of you lol
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Dragon of Mystery: Thanks again for the review as usual! And yeah, the trust is starting to come around, albeit slowly. And with Cynder you'll definitely notice she's doing a lot more melee/close combat wise in this chapter than previously (even though it has been a lot previously as well). And I understand; the holidays can be a busy time for people, so take your time and read when you can!
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Thank you all for reading; hope you enjoyed this, and it was good to get a longer chapter out as well. Reviews are highly appreciated! Have a great day or night, whatever it is for you :)