Part VI: The Revelation
Rex cautiously walked through the tunnel. The walls seemed to be closing in. It appeared to be getting narrower as he moved along. He held his hands together and looked around nervously, his dark eyes adjusting to the darkness. He felt a chill ride up his backbone with every step that he took. The walls were so close to him now that he thought he could see the very fine detail in the rock. 'How far does this tunnel go?' The dracovol thought. He was starting to feel frightened as the tunnel continued to grow narrow the further he went down. 'Maybe I should stop...and turn back...' He turned to walk away, but then with his next step, the wall had fanned out far apart so abruptly it took him by surprise.
The opening he had come upon led into a large open room, much like the ones in the alimon caves. Rex cautiously took a step in, and peered up at the ceiling. A few rays of light was shining through. As the warm rays hit his skin, he felt this energy rise up inside him. But when he went back into his shadows, that feeling of renewed strength was gone, vanished just like that. He was puzzled by this phenomenon. Why did he feel strong in the light, but weak in the dark?
'I guess I could try to use that to my advantage.' Rex thought. He looked around the room once more, and studied the lighted areas more closely. The large room had a small light section in the middle of it. If his theory was correct, and he kept Dark Rex in that spot long enough, he could win. Rex took another step, and winced as he felt his toes strike a small stone. The stone rolled across the cold hard floor, and the sound echoed off the walls, and increased and prolonged the sound. Rex looked around anxiously. Surely his dark counterpart had heard that sound.
He heard a soft growling sound coming from one of the tunnels that connected into that small room. A single red eye glowed brightly, and the dracovol gasped, backing away. A paw of long sharp claws gripped the side of the wall, and scraped the tip of the nails across the wall, sending a cold bolt in Rex's smaller body. He took another step back, almost regretting his decision of facing off with Dark Rex.
The red glowing died down slightly, and the other eye became visible. The scar that Rex had on his face now showed itself on Dark Rex's face as the hybrid emerged into the room. Upon seeing Rex free from his binds, Dark Rex growled softly, and slowly licked one of his over-sized teeth. He then took his claw, and picked around the groove between two small sharp teeth, and was able to pull out a piece of flesh, and flicked it to the ground. "So..how did you escape your binds, brat?" He inquired darkly, the red eye glowing brighter this time, almost illuminating the whole room.
Rex was shaking, but didn't back down. He straightened himself up, and stared at his counterpart bravely. "I've come to fight you, and gain control of my body once more! I will not let you decieve my friends any longer."
Dark Rex stared at Rex long and hard for several minutes. During that time, he didn't make a muscle move, save for the occasional scraping of teeth or skin, and a couple yawns. He then started suppressing a laughter. Rex tilted his head. Suddenly Dark Rex burst into laughter, a cold laughter, that echoed in the room.
Rex gripped his hands into fists, squeezing them so tight that they shook violently. "Hey! What are you laughing about!" Dark Rex continued laughing. Rex couldn't take it and he rushed over, forgetting his fear, and gripped Dark Rex by the shoulders and shook him. "WHAT'S SO DARN FUNNY!"
Dark Rex just grinned, and pushed Rex to the ground. "You are, my boy." He said, staring at the smaller dinosaur. "I believe Littlefoot has just organized an alimon party to come and kill you."
Rex's dark eyes widened, and a sharp gasp was inhaled. "B-But why would he..." He growled. "You...what did you do!"
Dark Rex chuckled. "Well, not much..." He scratched his tooth. "Just sicked a stoneglare on your precious 'friends' that's all."
Rex gasped again, and backed away. "You did what...?"
"And if I understand correctly, it took the life of two of your 'friends.' " The hybrid responded, smiling at Rex's despair. He was loving his pain. And Rex could see it.
"Why..Why...you..." He stammered, lunging forward, blinded by anger. The dracovol took to the air, and brought out his sharp clawed feet in front. "Take this!" He struck the hybrid across the chest, and two of his claws managed to sink into the beast's skin, and slashed downward, creating two bloody gashes going vertical on his chest. Dark Rex screamed in pain, and he pulled back his long-clawed hands, and struck across Rex's back. The young dracovol fought back tears and a cry of pure agony as the sharp nails cut into his back, and back of his wings. Four gashes snaked across his back horizontally. Rex fell to the ground, and struggled to look up. Dark Rex lifted up his foot, and struck down, trying to crush Rex's head under the weight of it.
Rex reacted quickly, and painfully rolled out of the way. As he rolled, he lifted a paw and struck his claws across Dark Rex's ankle. The monster screeched, and lifted his foot up into the air instinctively, to avoid another struck. And this was a big mistake. Rex struck out again, this time aiming for the other ankle. He gripped it, and pulled as hard as he could, and Dark Rex tipped over to one side.
Remembering what had happened earlier with the darkness and light, Rex started to drag his evil self towards the center of the room, where the largest gathering of light in the room rested. As the rays touched his skin, Rex felt himself grow stronger, and he pulled Dark Rex entirely in the illuminated area with one big yank.
"What's this...?" Dark Rex muttered, almost scared. "My strength...it faded..."
"But my strength increased!" Rex said proudly before lashing out at the hybrid, managing to knock him onto his back, pinning him. The dracovol raised a paw and slashed across the monster's face, giving him four new gashes, blood seeping from the wounds. He struck again, this time into Dark Rex's shoulder, cutting the muscle and blood vessels inside. His claws were getting caked with blood. Dark Rex cried out in pain, and struggled to knock off the dracovol.
Littlefoot, Ducky, Ali, the two sickleclaws, and the alimon pack slowly walked across the field, their shadows darkening the land around them. Littlefoot's eyes narrowed into near slits, and his teeth were bared. The others around him were more nervous, but tried to hide it. Pterano was perched on Littlefoot's head. He looked just as angry as Littlefoot. He had recieved word of Petrie's demise. He felt nearly all sanity inside him burst open with that single statement. He agreed to join Littlefoot in the quest to destroy Chomper and Rex to avenge the death of their loved ones.
Not long after they had started their journey, the group of plant-eaters were joined by other survivors. They all came out of hiding, and joined up with Littlefoot. Many of them lost all or most of their families to the hideous sharpteeth. Nychus and Syna also caught up with the group. The once small group had grown much larger, consisting of both meat-eating and plant-eating animals.
Not too far out in front of them, maybe two miles, Chomper was leading his army towards Littlefoot's army. Walking next to Chomper was Dark Rex. The hybrid smiled almost proudly, walking side by side with Chomper. The army of sharpteeth was larger than Littlefoot's combined group. The majority of the sharpteeth were of the bonecrusher variety. There were several ridgeheads, even more sickleclaws, a handful of Spinosauruses, and a couple of other horned sharpteeth like Chomper and Loc. Hidden among the ground was a pair of longclaws, or Therizinosauruses. They normally feasted on vegetation or insects, but they had agreed to join Chomper's army. Chomper wanted them for their uniquely long claws, which stretched forabout three feet from the claw root. Also joining the pack was Gris and his pack members.
Loc was walking close behind Dark Rex and Chomper. All doubt in his mind over these days had faded away into nothingness. They were replaced by arrogance and confidence. With a pack this size, how could Littlefoot and his pesky friends possibly hope to win?
"There they are!" A ridgehead who was near the front announced. General Dark Rex narrowed his eyes, and held out his paw, halting the army. General Chomper held out his paw as well, as if confirming the hybrid's order to stop. Rather abruptly, the pack stopped in their tracks, and some growled, snarled, and snapped impatiently.
"Why are we waiting?" Blueye growled. "They're over there!"
"Why don't we charge already!" Answered a raptor.
"They're just walking pieces of meat!" Came the reply of another raptor.
Littlefoot stopped on a hill, and glared at the sharptooth pack on the other hill. The hills grooved down to create a relatively large plain, a useful battleground. "There they are..." Came the hiss of Pterano, who now stooed up on the longneck's head.
Sandstorm walked out into the front, and peered out ahead. He felt a strange feeling in his heart, possibly rage, when he spotted Red near the front of the pack. He tensed up his body, and prepared to lunge downward. Yu stood by, and he felt the same way as Sandstorm when the green raptor spotted Jackel. He prepared to attack on Littlefoot's word.
Shuva and Spellbound growled uncertainly as they spotted their rival pack, Gris's pack, mingling with Chomper's horde of sharpteeth. This was going to be one tough battle.
For several minutes, the two groups just stood there, staring at the other, waiting for the other to make their move. The dark clouds rolled over head, and a loud thunderclap clashed through the skies. The sound sent a chill through the hearts of both sharpeeth and leaf-eater alike. Others stood uneffecting by the deafening roar of thunder as they stared at their enemies, a growing hate emerging in their hearts and minds.
The silence was unbearable for some of the dinosaurs, and they expressed it by growling and snapping at each other, whether they were plant-eater or meat-eater. Finally General Chomper took a step forward, smiling insanely. "So it comes down to this!" He said. "Well it's over for your freelife, plant-eaters! Why don't you go easy on yourselves and give up?" He grinned. "I dreamed of this for years."
Sandstorm growled, and opened his mouth to speak, but Littlefoot interrupted. He stepped up to speak. "We will not go down so easily, Chomper!" He declared. "We will fight you! This is your last chance, sharpteeth! Go home!"
Chomper laughed coldly at the longneck's statement. "Why, Littlefoot...we are home!" Lightning flashed, illuminated the carnotaurus's face eerily.
Dark Rex looked behind at his and Chomper's army, and made a gesture. "Come on! Attack!"
The pack of sharpteeth roared and growled in agreement. Showing their long teeth in their jaws, and displaying their talons, they rushed forward towards the group out in front of them. They raced down the hill, and nothing was going to stop them.
"Move out!" Littlefoot announced. The others bellowed as they started running as fast as they could, descending down the hill. The alimons of both sides were the fastest, and they were the first to meet at the bottom of the hill. In a matter of seconds, the two sides clashed with each other, claw against claw, tooth against tooth.
A black-colored threehorn rammed her horns quickly into the side of a large sharptooth, penetrating the vital organs. A duckbill screamed in pain as a horned sharptooth bit into his back and ripped out part of his spine. Two alimons tackled each other, drawing much blood from each other. A longneck bared his teeth as he used his foot to literally crush the life out of a raptor, blood staining the ground and the bottom of his foot. A spiketail didn't have time to scream as she felt one of the Spinosauruses sank her crocodile-like jaws around her neck, and gave a sharp twist, breaking the neckbone clean in half.
"That's right!" Dark Rex declared. "Go for the eyes! Break their jaws! Rip out their throats! Break their backs!"
"Get them!" Chomper announced. "Show them what a real sharptooth is capable of!"
A Therizinosaurus faced off with a longneck. They circled each other for a few seconds, before the longneck turned around and lashed out with its long thin tail. The longclaw swiftly dodged it, and he ran close to the longneck. Before the dinosaur knew what was coming, the Therizinosaurus jammed its super long nails into the side of the sauropod, entering on one side, and exiting the other. Blood completely covered them.
Three evil raptors jumped on top of a small duckbill, digging their sharp claws into his vulnerable skin. Suddenly a clubtail swatted one of the raptors away. The other two abandoned the duckbill to check on their fallen combrade. All of his bones had been shattered.
Ducky watched the battle, and noticed something on the ground nearby. She looked up again, and spotted Loc menacing Ali. She looked again at the thing on the ground, and an idea came to her head...
Inside the dark confides of Dark Rex's mind, Rex stood over the hybrid beast, looking triumphant. His teeth and claws were stained with the beast's blood. Dark Rex was still conscious, but wincing in pain from so many deep cuts in his body. His wings were even more ripped up, his face was clawed up, gashes covered his body. He tried to get up, but fell back down, and closed his eyes.
Rex wiped off his hands. "That was easier than I thought..." He looked down the tunnel that Dark Rex had come from. "And now to regain control of my body..." He made a mad dash towards the tunnel, but he stopped dead when he heard the hybrid call out to him.
"No! No! You will not win that easily!" Rex was shocked to see the hybrid get up onto his feet, despite the beating he had just recieved. "I'm not through with you!"
"I beat you to a pulp." Rex breathed. "How could you still be standing?"
Dark Rex grinned. "Because I can do something you can't..."
He started screaming as his body started to change in shape. Rex watched in horror as the creature's spin snapped and spread further apart, filling in the gaps. The tail lengthened to near three times the original length. His neck protruded further out, his jaws lengthened, his teeth grew in size. His pupils changed, turning into slits. Horns grew out of the back of his head. His wings healed completely and a row of sharp spines protruded from his back.
Rex backed away fearfully as the creature grew to a staggering size. He broke through the cave, revealing a wide open area that looked like a series of platues, hills, and mountains. Rex flew out quickly before a large paw could smash him under its tremendous force. The dracovol landed on a high cliff, and looked down. He screamed as the fully transformed flamebreath's head peered over with ease. A large paw struck down, nearly missing the dracovol. The dragon narrowed his eyes, and flames shot out of his mouth, striking the ground.
Rex could feel its hit sting his body, and he backed away. He looked up at the colossal creature. He gulped as his mind registered the sheer size of the creature. He felt his legs start shaking. His teeth chattered. His heart raced inside his chest.
The dragon peered down, and grinned. His large teeth were now even larger than Rex's body! "So..do you still think you can take me on?" The dragon spoke in a booming dark voice. Rex couldn't reply, having almost passed out from shock. "Let's see if you have what it takes to defeat a full flamebreath, you little pest!"
He struck out. Rex regained his composure, and flew out of the way. He snarled, and dove down, striking at the flamebreath's eye. "Let's do this!" He declared, clawing at the vulnerable eye. The dragon shook his head violently and suddenly, forcing Rex to let go, fly away a few feet, turn around, and try again.