I have been looking forward to posting this so much.
I was asked if I chose music for each moment or wrote the story to fit the music. The answer is no, I don't. I just get lucky in finding the right songs. I'd like to just thank John's Hourglass here for suggesting Indiscriminate Murder. The one scene where I had the music before the story was the end of chapter nine, where Spyro and Cynder sang Guide You Home together.
I have a peice of music for Volteer for you, you don't have to play it anywhere, it's just for him in general.
Delilah, by BigFlo
A dramatic and stylish song by Korean band BigFlo, its pretty much entirely in Korean. I don't understand what they're singing about (even with translations =p ) but it still suits Volteer pretty well in my opinion.
I do hope you've all been looking forwards to this chapter. I certainly have been.
Story now!
"Your extraordinary prowess and mastery of elemental lightning have immortalised you as the infamous and most powerful Electricity dragon in history." Volteer said with enthusiasm. "Naturally I have called the guards; you are surrounded, outnumbered and outmanoeuvred. Any escape is most implausible, even for a prodigious dragon like yourself. I have elected to battle you without aid to compare my skill against yours, to see if I've surpassed you. When you left me I was but the learner, but now I am the master."
"Nice quote." Imperia said approvingly.
"You think you're more powerful than I am? Good. I'm glad that absurd title has turned out to be useful." He looked at Imperia. "Don't run, when I'm done with your noble protector I'll rip that spear out of your paws and drive it through your skull."
"I'll wait." The wind dragoness purred.
Thoran turned back to Volteer, there was no doubt the new electricity guardian would be one of the most skilled dragons in Warfang, but he'd only had thirty years of apprenticeship, not the usual fifty. Not even his natural talent could have brought him to Thoran's level.
"We'll call this your final lesson." He told the younger dragon.
Lightning surged through Thoran's body; he took a second to focus it and then blasted a crackling stream of power from his jaws. Volteer leapt back and took shelter behind the doorway. Thoran cut off the beam and charged up his favourite technique. Volteer stepped back into the room in time to see Thoran hurtling straight at him. He yelped in surprise and leapt back through the doorway. Thoran ignored the wall and aimed at where he calculated Volteer would be, his thunderlance punched through the stone of the wall with ease and he slammed into Volteer. Despite the impact sending him reeling the younger dragon showed surprising skill in diverting Thoran's lightning, but Thoran didn't care, he surged up and smashed his paws into Volteer's face, instantly sweeping back to rip his eyes out. Volteer ducked under the second strike and stamped on Thoran's rear paw before deftly stepping around him and smacking him in the side with his tail.
Thoran coiled around to pursue his opponent. His jaws clamped shut, missing Volteer's tail by inches. His own tail blade was much thicker and more deadly than Volteer's and he lashed out with it, growling in satisfaction when he hit his target.
Volteer hadn't been hurt, his hard scales had deflected the attack, but he was more cautious now. He hadn't expected such a savage assault from Thoran. He retreated back into Imperia's room, the wind dragoness was watching from the bed. She moved forwards as if to help, but Volteer shook his head. He wanted to do this alone.
Thoran stalked back into the room, Volteer unleashed a torrent of sparks at him, while the sparks were not as dangerous as typical lightning they were harder to defend against. The pain jabbed at Thoran and he put his wing up to protect his head, it felt like he was being poked with hot needles. Thoran roared in anger and swept his wings, creating a surge of electricity that swamped Volteer's sparks. He spun the power Volteer had left in the air into a massive lightning bolt and hurled it at the electricity guardian, hitting him dead on.
Volteer didn't fall.
His eyes snapped open and they glowed with power.
"You won't beat me that way." He said, and then he slammed his paw onto the ground and sent lighting surging through it.
Thoran leapt into the air to evade the lightning, Volteer got there ahead of him, grabbing him from behind and slamming him into the floor. Thoran howled in anger and pain, Volteer slammed him again. He was breaking the floor from the force of the impact.
Thoran's bones were tough, but the stone floor was just as strong, it was bad to be slammed against it. He reversed Volteer's hold and began to grapple with the dragon at close range.
Volteer had much less skill at melee attacks, he had become skilled in the standard dragon style but always preferred air or elemental combat to brawling. Thoran, however, used the lethal style of the Old Fire dragons, which suited him perfectly. When Thoran latched on and began to hit Volteer again and again the physically weaker didn't cope very well at all. He panicked and Thoran growled in victory, recognising that he had found Volteer's weakness.
Thoran torqued his body, dragging Volteer off balance before going for a killing blow to the younger dragon's throat. Volteer seized the carpet and used it as a shield, tangling Thoran's claws. The murderous dragon roared in anger again and ripped clear. Volteer scrambled out of his way and the fight paused for a moment.
"You're better than I am in lightning manipulation." Thoran said coldly. "Well done for that. But I'm the stronger dragon by far. Lie down and I'll kill you quickly. Keep fighting and I'll rip you into bloody pieces."
"I don't think you've seen how good I really am, yet." Volteer said. He began to glow all over, charging a thunderlance. Thoran grinned at him.
"How cute, my favourite technique. Come and get me, Volteer." He reared up and welcomed the attack.
Volteer didn't charge at him though, instead he flickered and turned into two Volteers.
Thoran stared, both Volteers glowed, both looked perfectly real.
"Impossible. You can't have learnt my Lightning illusion technique." Thoran said in shock. "That's mine. I'm the only one who knows it!"
"You were the only one who knew it. But you said it yourself, I have more skill then you do. It took me six years to work this out, but it was time well spent." The two Volteer's began to circle Thoran.
Only one was solid, but there was no way to tell which one, and the illusory one made of electricity could still be dangerous if it made contact with him.
"I'll kill you!" Thoran roared. "That's my technique and I'll kill you for knowing it!"
"You'll have to go and kill the library too." The two Volteers said with identical smiles. "I write everything down. Accurate documentation is essential for the scientif-"
Thoran curled up into a ball and used a lightning sphere to incinerate everything in the room.
His massive surge of power disrupted and destroyed the copy instantly, wrecked the floor, scarred the walls and battered the roof and would have taken both of the other dragons out of the fight in seconds.
When the lightning cleared Thoran returned to the ground, panting. He'd expended more energy on these two then he had wanted to.
Volteer was still standing, completely untouched. Thoran looked at him silently for a second.
"You truly are worthy of being the electricity guardian." He said reluctantly. He glanced around for Imperia. She too was untouched, the lightning he had sent in her direction now radiated from the Dragonslayer. She twirled it deftly between her paws.
"I can see why you like this thing." She smiled.
Thoran growled at her.
"This has gone far enough." He said. He half turned towards Imperia, then lunged for Volteer, taking him off guard. He whipped the carpet he had grabbed hold of over Volteer's head and lashed a powerful kick into his face.
He was faced with a choice now, finish Volteer off and risk Imperia joining the fight. Or go for the Dragonslayer while Volteer was blinded. He chose the Dragonslayer and charged at Imperia.
The wind dragoness skipped back with a laugh, Thoran lunged again and she danced out of his way, making distance between them with a graceful somersault. He hated wind dragons; they were always so damn hard to get hold of.
Suddenly he realised that in her acrobatics Imperia had backed herself up against the wall. He lunged again, wings spread to cut off her escape. She went upwards; running straight up the wall and then, mocking both him and gravity, used her magic to continue to run across the ceiling.
Thoran beat his wings and twisted after her, determined not to let her escape. The Dragonslayer flicked out, but not at him. Instead she used the spear to cut the chain on the chandelier. Thoran jerked out of the way and the chandelier fell. It hit the ground right beside him with an awesome crash. Glass flew everywhere and he snarled at the dragoness standing on the roof directly above him.
Imperia pointed the Dragonslayer straight at his head and pushed off, accelerating instantly to an extreme speed. Thoran writhed out of the way of that lethal blade, but was unable to fully evade Imperia's attack. She hit him with her full weight and force; the floor gave way beneath them sending the two of them down to the next level of the tower. Imperia leapt off Thoran and flipped up to the new ceiling instantly, not giving the battered dragon any time to get a grip on her. Then she repeated the attack, smashing him straight through the floor again. These levels of the tower were unoccupied, and the room they landed in was entirely bare.
She went to do it again; she could have wrecked the whole tower and not gotten a scratch. Thoran quickly surrounded himself with lightning armour, the perfect method for protecting himself from most melee attacks.
Imperia couldn't touch him, but the Dragonslayer still could. The air hummed as the spear flicked out and before he knew what was happening Thoran was bleeding from a deep cut on his chest. He went to catch the spears cross guard but only got a second slash on his paws. She whipped the spear around in an arc and Thoran ducked under it, then she jabbed out again before he could recover and Thoran backed away. This was bad.
"That chandelier was insanely expensive you know. You could have at least had the courtesy to be hit by it."
Volteer joined them from the hole in the ceiling, looking a bit worse for wear. He looked at the situation, Thoran cut and bleeding. Imperia smiling gently, not even out of breath and casually aiming the Dragonslayer at her opponent. "Oh, and my earlier comment about not doing threesomes, I was lying. This is fun!"
"Remind me never to make you enraged, infuriated, aggressive or murderous." Volteer said.
"Volteer, don't forget to never enrage me." Imperia said immediately.
"I knew you would say that."
"Aw, you know me too well. There's nothing wrong with aggressiveness though, depending on the inten-"
"Will you two SHUT UP!" Thoran roared.
This was the most annoying fight he'd ever had. Both dragons were practically immune to his lightning, Imperia was almost impossible to close in with, Volteer had proven far more trouble than he was worth. It was like fighting Terrador all over again. How could he kill them?
Simple, change the playing field. Thoran circled the room. Volteer advanced while Imperia hung back. They were getting confident that they could defeat him. That was fine, he'd let them think that. Just like in Darkmire's tomb he had to use the environment to his advantage.
Thoran reached the door as he circled the pair and smashed it open, stepping through and retreating several meters down the spiral stairs.
The stairs were perfect for Thoran's grappling fighting style. Barely wide enough for two dragons so he could fight them one at a time, the celling was too low for Imperia to do the flips and leaps so beloved by wind dragons. The stone was good and strong, stronger than the floor and ceilings of the tower rooms. The moles had taken special care with the stairway.
Volteer came first, charging down the stairway at him. Volteer filled the air with lightning; large attacks could be countered by another skilled electric dragon, so Volteer returned to using his torrent of sparks against Thoran. Thoran gritted his teeth against the pain, then lunged forwards and caught Volteer by his horn. He allowed a savage grin to form on his face; he locked his paw around Volteers long horn as tightly as he could.
Volteer realized his mistake and tried to pull away, Thoran yanked him forwards. Volteer tried to tug back so Thoran smashed his head into the wall.
He felt Volteer stagger slightly; his resistance was weakened, and seized the advantage.
Imperia tried to get around Volteer, so Thoran threw him into her way, knocking her back. Volteer started to create lightning, so Thoran cracked his skull off the wall again, and then he did it a third time and a fourth, until blood ran from his head and Volteer no longer created lightning.
"Volteer!" Imperia shrieked. The fear in her voice was music to his ears. She tried to jab Thoran from around Volteer but he ducked behind the dazed dragon and backed down the stairs.
He was laughing now; he could do this all day. He threw aside Volteer and went for Imperia; she held the Dragonslayer out of his reach so he didn't bother with it and just went for her instead. He slashed at her side and she yipped in pain. He chased her several meters up the staircase, laughing all the while. Imperia tried to jump over him but the space was too small and he finally caught hold of her and filled her body with lightning.
The dragoness screamed in pain and he laughed until she rammed the Dragonslayer straight into his belly. Thoran roared as white hot agony shot through his chest. He hurled Imperia down the stairs; she landed crumpled but rapidly rose to her feet again and pointed the spear at him. Volteer groaned and tried to get up, Imperia's weapon wavered as she rushed to his side.
"Volteer are you alright?" She asked urgently.
"Are you afraid yet?" Thoran asked, prowling slowly down the stairs towards her. Volteer staggered to his feet and Imperia half dragged him down the stairs. Thoran pursued them, watching them flee before him as they should have done from the start. "I won't even kill you." He smiled, stalking faster. "Give me the spear and I'll let you both live. I'll be taking it either way. Just give it to me."
"No." Imperia said coldly.
She went to move past Volteer, aiming the spear for Thoran, and he lunged at the two of them. Volteer leapt in front of Imperia and Thoran sent him staggering, before he could follow up his attack, however, Volteer flashed blindingly and made an explosive thunderclap sound. Thoran was caught off guard by the flash and bang, blinded and deafened he could only feel Volteer go for a strangling hold on him. Volteer put his paw into the cut Imperia had left on his belly and clawed at the wound, Thoran howled at the pain. He butted his head forward until his nose hit the other dragon. Not knowing or caring what part of Volteer he had found he sank his teeth into the dragon and tore a bloody chunk of his flesh out.
Volteer screamed, Thoran blinked his eyes into focus and saw that he had ripped a wide gash in Volteer's side. He growled in satisfaction and went for his throat. Volteer jerked backwards and Thoran's jaws crunched over empty air. He kicked Volteer in the chest hard and he fell onto Imperia and the two dragons went tumbling down the stairs.
He followed them down, laughing maniacally. This was fun, the pain meant nothing, he was sure Volteer was having a much worse time, and this was only the beginning of what he was going to do to Imperia.
He reached the bottom of the stairs, his two opponents were tangled on the floor below him, and the room contained six guard dragons.
This just wasn't his day, was it?
Imperia got to her feet, still pointing the spear. She wasn't hurt, yet. But she was beginning to actually look angry now, no longer amused. Volteer didn't rise nearly as quickly.
"I hope you've had some sense knocked into you. Volteer really, what were you thinking?"
Thoran recognised that voice. He looked across the room as Cyril walked in. The odds were really against him now. It was nine against one. No matter, the dragon with the skill to counter his lightning was down for the moment, he'd fry the others before they could touch him.
"We have the city guard for a good reason, you know. We aren't meant to go gallivanting off after dangerous enemies on our own. I suppose you've done a respectable job, the two of you aren't dead and you even managed to keep that Spear out of his hands."
"It's nice to see you again too, old friend." Thoran said, walking down the stairs, pleased at the way the guards all backed away from him. He must look intimidating, covered in his blood and Volteer's. He spat some of the latter's blood out of his mouth and grinned at the assembled dragons.
"You shouldn't have come back. Darkmire's tomb wasn't enough to keep you out of the way; we'll do better this time." Cyril said.
"There is nowhere better. I escaped the worst place Dragonkind knows of, and I butchered all the guards there. Just like I'll do here." He looked around the group of dragons, daring someone to face him. Credit where it was due Cyril didn't hesitate in walking into the circle they had created.
"Are you alright Volteer? Maybe you've learned that words aren't always the answer."
"Violence is the response of the inarticulate." Volteer replied, staggering to his feet.
"Whatever you say. Can you fight?"
"I'll fight." Volteer said.
"It took three of the guardians together last time." Thoran said. "Are you still sore from the beating I gave you Cyril? Your pride at least must be, you never did like losing to me in training."
Cyril shrugged, and then he fired ice spikes.
Thoran dodged the first two spikes and deflected the third with his wings. The guards closed in and Thoran ducked behind them to cover himself from Cyril's attacks. Cyril could really mess him up if he didn't deal with him. The first guard was a fire dragon. Thoran shocked him and then slashed him with his tail blade. The next was a fire dragon too; he launched a fireball which Thoran dodged. He responded with a lightning bolt that sent the dragon stumbling, and then he grabbed him by the throat and threw him into the others.
He charged up lightning and chained it through three of the dragons at once. These dragons were nowhere near his level in skill. Cyril, Imperia and Volteer were the primary threats.
He made a bigger lightning strike that would be intense enough to kill and blasted it at the closest dragon. The attack didn't hit, Volteer had joined the fight and absorbed the attack.
Suddenly he felt sharp pain on his tail, he looked around to find an earth dragon had bitten the end of it. He sent electricity down his tail, aiming to burn the dragon off him, but he bit down even harder and with jerk he bit the end of Thoran's tail right off.
His tail blade, along with almost a foot of his tail was gone.
All other enemies forgotten Thoran focused on the dragon that had done this to him. He unfurled his wings and sent a surge of power through them to keep the others back before bearing down on the earth dragon.
"You will pay for that!" He roared, and he ripped at the dragon's face. The dragon stabbed him in the leg with his tail blade; Thoran bit down on his head and charged his fangs with lightning.
Something went crack.
Thoran swept his wings out at the others, leaving the earth dragon on the ground.
"I'll kill every last one of you!"
A spike of ice caught him in the side; Cyril readied another, looking annoyed, but still in command of the situation. Thoran tucked his wings and dodged to the side, and then his eyes focused on Imperia and the Dragonslayer.
He went for her, determined to get the spear no matter who stood in his way. He burned the two guards who were between him and her with his lightning and sent a lightning bolt straight at her. Imperia used the Dragonslayer to defend herself but before she even needed it a wall of earth was raised in front of her. The lightning dissipated in the earth and the fight froze as a new dragon entered the room.
Terrador.
The earth Guardian looked calm and powerful. Thoran watched him warily. The balance of power had shifted far out of his favour now. With Terrador now present he was outmatched and he knew it.
If Ignitus had been here too it would have been a reunion of the old guardians, but the old leader of the guardians was dead now. Thoran licked his lips nervously, deciding what to do next.
"Last chance. Give me the spear and I'll go peacefully." Thoran said. He was bluffing, continuing this fight now was suicide, he might take down a few of the dragons but he didn't have a chance of winning.
"It isn't yours to take." Terrador said in his deep voice.
"It was mine!"
"No longer." Terrador replied.
"Fine." Thoran grated. He crouched and took off, Cyril created a storm of ice to try to catch him but Thoran outpaced it, shattering the high window and disappearing into the night sky.
"He'll be back." Cyril said. "Until he gets the Spear or we get him."
"I'll be back." Imperia said.
"What?" Volteer stared at her.
"I can catch him." She said. She spread her wings, gave the Dragonslayer a twirl and then flew in pursuit of Thoran.
He knew that he would be followed; they wouldn't let him get away so easily he was sure. He was on guard for an attack, but nothing happened. There was low cloud, perhaps they had lost him. He flew lower over the city, looping over the colosseum before making for the forests where he could take shelter.
He saw her in the distance; she made no effort to hide herself. He watched her fly directly upwards until she was almost hidden by the clouds. He thought she was gaining height to call down a storm. Then she turned and began to fall.
For a moment she fell gracefully, slowly, and then she began to accelerate. Thoran watched her fly faster and faster, until her trajectory changed and she arced around and was flying directly for him.
She'd cover the distance between then in seconds, she was moving at unbelievable speed. Thoran created lightning armour, but as soon as he saw the shining tip of the Dragonslayer he knew it wouldn't save him.
He'd dive out of her way at the last moment; surely she couldn't turn at that speed. Thoran waited in mid-air for her to get close enough, but he had underestimated her speed and she was on him before he could even try to dodge.
Three things were all he had time to process. The first was Imperia striking him, the Dragonslayer cut through his scales like they were paper.
Then he was alone, moving so fast the world was a blur and all he could recognise was the sand of the Colosseum rushing straight for him.
Thirdly was the impact.
He wasn't dead. There was too much pain for that. He focused on breathing, glad he was still capable of doing it. His eyes opened, he blinked blood out of his vision and he watched the wind dragoness float down to him from above.
Imperia twirled the Dragonslayer, then flicked it from one paw to the other and flourished it as she touched down.
"I've never done that to a living target before. Honestly I rather expected it to kill you." She said lazily.
Thoran put his left paw under him and tried to rise, his right paw wasn't responding to his thoughts. He managed to make it slightly off the ground, but then he collapsed again. Pain surged through him.
"You hit the ground at over one thousand kilometres per hour. I gave you all of my momentum as we hit. Do you know how much force that is? You've made a crater, it's a miracle you didn't make a big red smear. Dragons truly are amazingly tough creatures. At least I aimed you somewhere we couldn't cause too much damage." Imperia glanced around the colosseum. "This is a nice place."
Thoran tried again to get up. Imperia watched him with quiet admiration. He was certainly tenacious.
"Spearing you was just an extra precaution." Imperia smiled.
Thoran checked the damage. Several of his ribs were cracked, his wounds from earlier had split further and he was bleeding heavily. His right leg was clearly broken, one of his rear legs too. He was almost certainly suffering internal bleeding; also he'd bitten his tongue. The spear had gone in right at the base of his left wing, severing muscle and cutting bone. He wouldn't be flying away from here. With all his strength he managed to stand.
"You win." He said softly. "You should kill me now."
"I'm going to. Do you want to know why?"
"Not really."
"Well I'm going to tell you anyway. You gave me this spear in a way. Do you recall how you lost it?"
"No."
"You left it in the heart of a wind dragon when you were captured at the old Dragon Temple. Do you remember now?"
"No. I can't recall everyone I've ever killed. Did I kill your daddy or your mummy? I don't care!" Thoran snarled at her and spat out blood. "You talk too much. Just take your little revenge if you think it'll make you feel better."
"The revenge is just a bonus. I'm going to put you down, and I won't lose any sleep over doing so because you're a monster. And by killing you I'll make this world a better place. That's all I've ever tried to do."
Thoran grunted. Imperia began to walk down the gentle slope of Thoran's impact crater towards him, once she was close enough he lunged at her, swatting the spear aside and trying to bite down on her head. She ducked under the attack and slammed the heavy side of the Dragonslayer into Thoran's broken ribs.
He fell to the ground, choking on nothing. Imperia stepped on his side and pressed the Dragonslayer against his chest.
"There's no shame in dying like this. You put up an amazing fight." She smiled gently. "Oh and if in the next world you are asked who it was that finally killed you, tell them it was Imperia, the first Wind Guardian of Warfang."
"There is no wind guardian." Thoran hissed.
"I beg to differ."
Imperia sighed, gave Thoran a sad smile, and then she put her clawed foot against the crossguard of the Dragonslayer and stamped down.
Please don't give any spoilers, I've worked hard for this moment.
Actually I'm being hypocritical. In an earlier chapter I already told you exactly how this fight was going to end (Read back if you want, check chapter 11!) I'm curious to know, who spotted it?
Did you see Thoran's death coming?
"Make your own luck."
-4Dragons