This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.
Chapter 8: Burn Away the Darkness
Descending on the town like vultures over a rotting carcass in the desert, the dragons circled and dropped onto the small town; at least 20 or 30 of them, everyone one them looked as mean and vile as the last. The people scattered and armed themselves in similar fashion to Lalberdean.
Shadow raced into the house where he was staying to retrieve his backpack, throwing it over his shoulder and returning to the battle; he jumped onto a house to give himself a clear shot at the oncoming wave.
The guard posts around the village took aim at the swarm and fired their steel bolts into the air. The long spears had little effect as most missed the mark, but a couple did land; one of which hit a dragon square on and caused it a lot of pain, enough to cause it to fall out of formation and retreat. Putting one dragon out of action was a start, but there were plenty more where that came from.
The first few dragons came down on the guard towers, firing their flame breath and clawing at the structures. A few more dragons spread around to attack the rest of the towers, and the rest went into the town. Now that the dragons were closing in, Shadow stepped forward and charged up.
"Chaos Spear!"
The energy bolt flew through the air causing a few dragons to scatter to avoid it.
"Chaos Spear!"
Another bolt flew through the air, and again a clump of dragons dispersed to avoid.
"Chaos Spear!"
Shadow fired at another group of dragons. Now the beasts were getting angry and focusing intently on the black menace, half the beasts now charged the hedgehog. Shadow waited for them to close in; as long as they centered on him, the rest of the village had far less to worry about. And Shadow had one little surprise for them; when the dragons came within firing range, Shadow let them have it.
"Chaos Blossom!"
Shadow's form charged in a bright white glare and unleashed the barrage on the incoming monsters. The dragons couldn't avoid, they were too close and flying too fast to avoid the fireworks. All but two of the demons were struck head on by the savage attack and fell to the ground in shock.
Around the village, some of the villagers moved in on the downed reptiles, trying to snare them in chains and steel cable nets. The rest of the dragons circled around to give them some time to recover, which didn't take long. After a minute, most of them had snapped out of it and were ready to continue.
Shadow continued to attack using the Chaos Spear and the odd Chaos Blossom, but the dragons had learned to keep some distance from the hedgehog. The flying giants withdrew a bit to reconsider their options.
After a moment to regroup, the dragons came back. This time, a few of the dragons charged Shadow directly while the rest targeted the village, keeping well away from the visitor from Mobotropolis.
Shadow continued to fire his Chaos Spear at the ones that were hustling him, and occasionally fired one or two wide to try and pick off some of the dragons that were attacking the rest of the town. When Shadow noticed some of the dragons bunching up in one area, he raced over and unleashed the Chaos Blossom, hoping to send them to the ground. The dragons now knew to avoid the little furball, but he moved so fast that by the time they saw him, it was too late. This plan seemed to work, but Shadow knew that his power was limited to the Power Rings in his backpack; the dragons weren't really being hurt by Shadow's attacks, and if they didn't tire out soon, his supply would.
The dragons pressed the assault, every time Shadow wiped out a group, more would come in to give cover fire until they recovered, not letting the villagers any chance to do any permanent damage to their downed comrades.
"This is getting stupid. Can't these dragons take a hint?"
Shadow looked behind him and saw two of the beasts coming up behind him. Before they could fire, Shadow made a break for it. The two attackers never saw Shadow, nor did they see him come up from behind.
"Chaos Spear!"
Shadow downed one of the two with a strike that hit the beast right between the wings. The other turned to face him, and got another bolt right in the chest.
"Stay down, dammit!"
Two more dragons came from the side breathing flames at the warrior. Shadow ran again, leaping from rooftop to rooftop to escape. The dragons spread out a bit and attacked Shadow again, this time from different angles, hoping to catch the hedgehog in the crossfire.
Shadow ran down the slope of the roof and dropped to the ground below, the dragons and their fire flew right over his head just missing him as the massive cloud of blazing orange flooded the sky.
Shadow watched as the dragons flew past, leaving a burning trail behind them.
RRRRRROOOAAARRRRRR!!!
Shadow looked up to see a renewed swath of bright orange in the air piercing the smoky residue, and dropping down on top of him. The heat was intense, and the searing light enveloped him. Covering his face from the onslaught, Shadow ran in whatever direction blindly to get out of the fire. Stumbling around after he got out of the heat, he swatted at his clothes and fur to brush out any embers that were sticking and burning him.
The dragon swooped down behind the hedgehog and fired again, Shadow was bathed in another flaming shower, the hot air pushing him from behind like a violent wind. Shadow was a fireball by the time he got out of the jet.
Shadow could feel the heat burning at his skin, and hit the ground rolling, trying to extinguish the flame in the dirt, something that was not easy with the added weight of the backpack full of Power Rings. The hedgehog was almost clear of the latest fiery sprites when the dragon charged behind him with its claws outstretched; Shadow didn't see it when the beast swiped at him, shredding his backpack, scattering his Power Rings all over the place, and throwing Shadow to the ground several meters away.
He was now in pain, tired and hurt, Shadow lurched to one side as he tried to get to his feet. Shadow got up and saw the dragon standing just down the street, it's fierce eyes locked on him with a glare of hate. It was that dragon, the one Shadow assaulted back in Lalberdean, complete with the same red and orange scales, and the row of short horns on the back of his head.
"Hi Red; let me guess, you came for a rematch."
The dragon stood there, hissing and breathing deeply. Shadow could see that the beast wasn't interested in conversation, or trying to arbitrate the current situation. The red dragon pulled back and arched its back, taking in a huge breath. Shadow knew what was coming next, and launched his phase run when the enormous red flume came straight for him.
Shadow stopped behind a house to give himself a bit of cover and to reassess his situation. No backpack means no Power Rings, no Power Rings means no Chaos Spear, no Chaos Spear means barbecued hedgehog. Shadow didn't like that option, but there was little else to do with…
Shadow's attention turned to his right where another dragon came around the corner of the building and spotted him.
"Oh crap!"
Shadow ran for it as another flame jet shot past the place where he stood.
The red dragon was still searching for the black hedgehog, and found him when the other dragon drew him out of his hiding spot. The beast flew into the air and chased after Shadow from the air.
Shadow ran through the streets, trying to stay ahead of the two dragons that were chasing him. He really didn't consider where he was going; he thought that he could at least draw these two dragons away, and maybe take some of the heat off the villagers. Ultimately, the only thing he was focused on was saving his own butt. Shadow didn't care about the town, he didn't care about anyone in it, he didn't care if the fate of the whole world was at stake, all Shadow wanted was to get away.
Racing down the street, Shadow turned into a house; he figured it would give him cover for a moment to catch his breath and think of a plan. The dragons saw him go in and surrounded the building, circling it from above. From their height, the beasts bombed the house with their breath; the flames couldn't penetrate the stone, but it smashed windows and burned doors, filling into the outside rooms.
Shadow ran to the center of the house, hoping to avoid the flames when he heard the dragons switching tactics and bashing the walls of the house. At the same time, he heard a faint cry, a scream from downstairs; there were people hiding in the house, and Shadow led the dragons right to them.
In a bit of grief and stupid heroism, Shadow ran out into a room just as the not red dragon flew past. Shadow charged through the broken window and leapt onto the dragon's head and on top of the next house. A roar from the reptilian creature signaled to the red dragon that their target was moving again. The two dragons left the house and chased their quarry. The two dragons left the house in its singed state and followed the black blur from rooftop to rooftop.
While running away, Shadow paid little attention to the state of the village other than to watch where he was stepping, but it was quite obvious that Nosadire was not faring well. Many of the houses had been scorched like the one he just came from, and several had large chunks ripped out of their walls or roofs. Also of note, were the locations of any nearby dragons, a large batch of which were seen just before Shadow, tearing up a few of the houses.
The two dragons coming up behind called out to the large group in front of them, and a few of them raised their heads to see the hedgehog heading their way. Shadow's mind went into overdrive to devise a plan; he didn't want more dragons on his tail, but if he charged the large group, perhaps he could escape in the confusion. With the rather simple plan in mind, Shadow charged forward.
The nearest dragons launched jets of flame at Shadow, and the two following him added their attacks to create one massive incendiary bomb. Shadow ran as fast as he could and just barely escaped the incineration, and ran between the two dragons in front of him.
The two dragons he just passed tried to fly up and turn around, while the two chasing him almost crashed into them. After a brief exchange of roars, the dragons flew up to relocate the hedgehog.
Shadow was running back and forth between several of the houses that were in various stages of destruction by the other dragons around. He received several howls from the monsters as he ran past, but few bothered to pay him any mind as they were more focused on demolishing the village.
The four dragons that tried to fry him were looking around for him, trying to put the pest to an end, trying to pinpoint his location by the cries of their comrades.
Shadow kept bouncing back and forth between the houses to confuse the dragons in a life or death game of 3-card Monty. When he was pretty certain that none of the dragons knew where he was, Shadow darted out through a window and made his way back where he came.
Although none of the dragons was able to follow all of Shadow's movements, one of them spotted the hedgehog on his way out, and roared loudly as he made his escape. The red dragon looked over to see what the other dragon was caterwauling about, and saw Shadow racing away. With a cry, the red dragon flapped its wings to bring it into the air, and the other three dragons followed suit.
Shadow made his way to the place where he lost his backpack; although there was nothing left of it, he found the Power Rings scattered on the ground. Before the dragons could reach him, Shadow ran around and picked up a bunch of the Rings before standing his ground.
As the dragons approached, Shadow summoned all the energy he could from the golden rings, drawing sparks of energy to flow from the rings into his body.
"Chaos Blossom!"
A shower of lightning bolts flew out towards the dragons, multiple copies of Shadow's trademark Chaos Spear. The four dragons chasing him found themselves with no room to maneuver, and in direct line of fire of the phalanx; none were missed, and all were brought to the ground in shock. After a minute, the dragons recovered and looked to the spot to find the hedgehog, but Shadow was long gone.
Off in the distance, outside Nosadire, Shadow had taken up a hiding spot in a crack in the mountainside; if any dragon had flown by and spotted him, the gap in the rock face would have made a lovely oven, but Shadow was too tired to try and find any other spot.
It was only now that the pain really hit hard. In the heat of battle there is no time for pain, exhaustion, or fear; it's when you rest afterwards that all those things come back in full force. Shadow's muscles were sore from the exercise in the cold weather, his flesh was crawling from the blisters cooked up by the searing flame, and his back was aching from the powerful slashing claws of the red dragon. The pain was excruciating, but it was nothing compared to the fear. Shadow was lost in panic, his mind racing with images of the dragons dancing around him, blasting him with large flumes of fire, swatting at him with massive claws and gnashing with huge teeth.
The refugee rested against the wall, gasping hard, but trying to control both it and his racing heartbeat in a desperate attempt to make as little noise as possible. It was not as if he needed to be real quiet, the noise outside was deafening: the roar of the dragons, the cackling of flames, the screams from the villagers, the destruction, the chaos. The noise was loud, and it was scary.
Shadow remained hidden for some time; when things calmed down outside, he figured it was time to emerge from his hole. He slowly crept out of the crevice, keeping an eye out in case any of the dragons were left behind. Content that he was alone, Shadow painfully walked out into the open.
Shadow was born in the endless darkness of the void, he had been in battles that destroyed a large chunk of floating rock, he faced a mechanical nightmare, and he criss-crossed time and space to challenge a vaporous enemy; but never before had he been in Hell.
The entire village was reduced to slabs of steaming rock, and anything flammable was going up in smoke. Shadow walked through the village, unbelieving the destruction that was at his feet. He couldn't even think that he was the only one to survive, he had to find someone else.
"Hello?! Anybody?! Sandy?!"
The first place he went was the house he first sought refuge in, the one he led the dragons to, the one that was occupied during the invasion. He knew that hope was faint, but he had to know. When he got there, or at least the location he thought the house was, he found nothing but a pile of stone. The rock was charred and singed, with bits of burning ash from the doors and the contents illuminating some of the blackness. The house was gone, and there were no voices screaming from below.
After the house, he made for the mess hall, Sandy and the children, as well as the seniors were there when the dragons came, so if they were anywhere, they were likely still there. When he got there, the whole building was torn open like Milon's big rig was. Inside the massive gap, the tables were torn apart and smashed, and in the back the kitchen was equally trashed with cooking pots and ingredients spilled around like a tornado ripped through the place.
Shadow looked around for any signs of life, but he found none. There were only a few bodies to be found in the dining area; one of the old men was burnt to a cinder and totally unrecognizable, one of the children was near the middle of the room and was nothing more than a couple of limbs and a smear on the floor. There were spots of blood splattered here and there, but there were few signs of other people.
Where was everybody else? Did they run away when the dragons ripped open the building, only to die somewhere else? Or did the dragons take the irony of the building and eat them right here and now?
Shadow spent almost four hours searching the rubble for any survivors, totally ignorant of how hungry and tired he was getting, he just kept looking. All around was chaos and death, rubble and cinders were all that was left; and not a soul alive as far as could be seen. For everything that looked like a person, Shadow checked, saddened each time that it turned out to be nothing more than another charred corpse. Only a fraction of the people were found intact, most had been ripped to pieces, or eaten by the attackers.
Shadow didn't stop for a beat, no matter how hopeless it got. As he lightly stepped past another ravaged body, Shadow reached down to find something that was only half burned. He picked up a charred book, the photo album that he brought with him. He opened the piece of the book that was still complete and sifted through the pages. Inside, were pictures, some whole, but many singed or half burned, others seemed to discolor and melt in the heat. There, faces of people who had so much faith in him, people he loved, people he didn't fail. But that was no more, he had failed this town, and he had failed to live up to what his friends in Mobotropolis had relied upon so many months ago.
His hands faltered, the half of the book slowly slid from his fingers, and tumbled to the ground.
